Five Arrested in Evansville for Copper Theft from Sewer
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Evansville police arrested five people Tuesday afternoon after they were caught stealing copper wiring from a manhole on North Evans Avenue. The wiring, confirmed to belong to CenterPoint Energy, was valued at over $200,000, and its removal caused significant damage to the utility’s infrastructure.
Officers arrived at the scene after getting a call about people near an open manhole. They saw a person pulling a large piece of copper wire from the sewer. None of the suspects were wearing uniforms or identification that would indicate they were authorized to be working on the utility lines.
The Evansville Police Department was joined at the scene by City of Evansville. Inside the sewer, they found a black milk crate containing damaged copper wire, along with tools including a handsaw and several blades. It was later confirmed the wiring belonged to CenterPoint Energy and that the damage to the wall where the wiring was attached exceeded $200,000.
The five suspects identified themselves to police as “scrappers.” They say they did not cut the wire themselves and that it was already severed and they were simply retrieving it. However, they admitted their intention was to sell the wire at local scrapyards.
The people arrested were 40-year-old Mary Costa, 30-year-old Philip Askins, 31-year-old Zachary Pfingston, 43-year-old Samuel Marshall, and 41-year-old Phillip Smith. All five were charged with criminal mischief and theft of valuable metals, among other things.
Evansville Public Information Officer Sgt. Anthony Aussieker says incidents like this are brand new to him, but they’re very unsafe.
“People are going down in there, and they’re cutting on things they don’t know what type of wiring is going through there,” Aussieker says. “They don’t know what kind of electricity or what the standard is with working with those kinds of utilities.”
