Three police dogs helped in the arrest of seven men who caused almost $3 million in damage while trying to steal copper wire from a hydro station, Vancouver police said yesterday.
The men, all known to police, were loading copper into a van early Monday morning when a Canada Line worker saw them and phoned police. Police dogs Chase, Blix and Coda aided in their apprehension.
The damage they caused to the station in the 400 block of Kent Street was assessed at $2.8 million, according to Dag Sharman, spokesman for B.C. Hydro.
In addition to forcing ratepayers to foot the bill for repairs, stealing copper wires can be deadly.
“They put their own lives at risk, yes, but they also put at risk the lives of first responders,” said Sharman.
“They put at risk the lives of B.C. Hydro and B.C. Transmission Corporation workers who come to work as they regularly do and they may not know that equipment that is potentially fatal has been tampered with.”
Police have programs in place to help curb metal theft including the Xtract program that requires scrap metal dealers to report all transactions to investigators.
