West Prince thieves target copper in lightning rods

Tag : copper rods

Ivan Collicutt installed a lighting rod system on the roof of hispotato warehouse in Burton 20 years ago, but last week he noticedthe 30-metre length of copper wire running between two rods wasgone.
"While I was out doing a little work at the warehouse, I looked upand saw the ends of the wires where they pulled them up and cutthem off," Collicutt said. "Copper is a good price now, so whereverthey can get copper, they will get it."
RCMP Sgt. Jamie George said this is the third incident of this kindin the region. RCMP said they are checking out scrap dealers to seeif anyone has been trying to unload thick copper wire.
Hal Smith of Stratford, who has been in the lightning-rod businessfor more than 30 years, said the missing wire could leaveunsuspecting owners in danger.
"A faulty system is actually more of a hazard than no system atall," he said. "You've got the lightning rods up there and they'renot connected, so if the lightning rod does intercept a lightningstrike and it has no path to the ground, then it could result infire."
When the system works as it should and lightning hits the rod, asmuch as 100 million volts can be carried safely down a thick copperwire that leads into the ground.