Copper Theft Leads to Kansas Power Outage

The theft of $425 worth of copper managed to inconvenience hundreds of electric customers in northeast Kansas.

Officials with Kaw Valley Electric Cooperative say a citizen reported a gate to a power substation open around 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Topeka Capital Journal reports Kaw Valley crews arrived to copper grounding cables removed from several points inside the substation.

The substation remained operational, but crews had to turn off the power to make repairs. The result was a 70-minute outage for about 1,000 customers in the Silver Lake area, just north of Topeka.

Kaw Valley officials put the value of the stolen copper at $425. They were assessing damage to the substation Friday.