Would-Be Copper Thief ‘Extremely Grave’ After He’s Shocked And Catches On Fire

losangeles.cbslocal.com ^ | May 5, 2012

[grundle]

SAN BERNARDINO (CBS) — A would-be copper thief was gravely injured early Saturday morning when he attempted to steal copper wiring from a live Edison vault, according to authorities.

Witnesses told CBS2 and KCAL9 reporter Melissa Maynarich that the man could be heard screaming in agony.

Jeff Grammatico was across the street from the substation when he said, “I heard a boom.” He added, “It made me jump from one side of the room to the other.”

He ran to the fence and saw a man burning alive. “It was scary. I was trying to cut the gate to get in. It was horrifying to watch him burn.”

Grammatico says he ran back to his home to get a fire extinguisher while another passerby called 911. “He kept standing and screaming, screaming, screaming. And I couldn’t get in. I had a fire extinguisher. But he wouldn’t come over. But he started to roll.”

Officials say the suspect is “extremely grave” and that it’s likely he was burned by 33,000 volts of electricity.

The incident occurred on the corner of Rialto and Stoddard about 2 a.m.

Southern California Edison said about 14,000 customers lost power. Service was fully restored by Saturday afternoon.

The man is described as a man in his 20s. Police have not released the man’s name. Witnesses said he was so badly burned there was no way for him to be identified. JR Velasquez said it was hard to witness the horror of the man burning. “It was something I really never seen n my life. Never happened to any animal or anybody.”

The man has not yet been charged with a crime. Police are trying to locate his family.

[Little Ray]

NOW its a happy ending!

[andy58-in-nh]

The man has not yet been charged. . . .
Oh yes he has.

I feel like I ought to apologize for laughing so hard at that. But I'm easily amused by current events.

[my job]

“..The man has not yet been charged with a crime...”

Once they charge him they have to pay his medical bill.

---

First he needs to be discharged. or recharged, or or ... well they just keep writing themselves. ... somebody stop me...

[dfwgator]

Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

[Political Junkie Too]

I thought that "grave" was the most extreme medical term. Is "extremely grave" the same thing as "badly bad?"

-PJ

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

In MA they’ve started stealing street grates.

It would suck to step off the curb and drop into the sewer.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Call him “Shorty.”

[old school]

I think it’s a reflection of the inevitability of his “condition.” It’s also a reflection of the poor quality of education in this country. I mean who’s unaware of the potential for electrocution in stealing copper wire?

[catman67]

Charged......and discharged!

[Steely Tom]

I think it’s a reflection of the inevitability of his “condition.

Yeah, it's tough to see a favorible prognosis for massive third-degree burns, ruptured internal organs, and a couple pounds of molten copper vapor driven into the surface wounds.

[tflabo]

Shoulda used this for protection, eheheh.

[tflabo]

Well at least they is already burnt up before arriving in hell.

[heartwood]

These copper thieves are attacking modern civilization - they would leave us in the dark and cold without running water.

Any self-imposed death penalty is deserved, unfortunately.

[Publius6961]

There is no way to identify the crispy critter, but they are trying to loacate his family?

WTF?

[Bailee]

Over cooked as well.

[Lazamataz]

I see they haven't charged him with anything yet.

They probably figure he's been charged enough.

Hyuck Hyuck Hyuck Hyuck.....

[tflabo]

Copper fried BBQ’d brothas!

[Lazamataz]

feel like I ought to apologize for laughing so hard at that. But I'm easily amused by current events.

You get amped so easily. Remember, THIS MAN IS THE RESISTANCE!

[JustSayNoToNannies]

I like the way he conducts himself.

[dfwgator]

"I'm glad you're dead."

[tflabo]

Much too dead now to ‘copper’ plea!

[meatloaf]

Just goes to show you should always carry a bag of marshmallows ... and a long non-conductive stick.

[Lazamataz]

That was re VOLTING.

[doorgunner69]

Imagine the bill he will get for the kilowatts used at today’s rates!

[tflabo]

See what happens when you cross gangsta cRap with Heavy Metal?

[Chode]

do i REALLY have to say it???

[andy58-in-nh]

You get amped so easily. Remember, THIS MAN IS THE RESISTANCE!

Well, he certainly proved he has the potential.

[Cyber Liberty]

The comments there are about as good as the ones here! Thanks!

[tflabo]

The EPA will now mandate to municipalities that all Copper thieves be protected against dangerous occupational hazards.

[Ditter]

I have seen people who have been burned all over their head and face, I would rather be dead.

[Ignatz]

Resist he much?

[OB1kNOb]

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

What would REALLY be a bummer is if he got lit up by a copper coated steel wire!

Most likely it was real copper.

[southernnorthcarolina]

CALIFORNIA CROOK COOKED IN COPPER CABLE CAPER

[manic4organic]

LOL!

[Moltke]

Q: Yo dog, you got dat copper?

A: Fo' Shizzle!

[Clay Moore]

Guy stole a bunch of manhole covers with “City of Fort Worth” cast into them and tried to scrap them... Maybe they wouldn’t notice.

He got to try and explain that one to a judge.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Ohm my God! Talk about shuffling off this mortal coil!

[China Clipper]

CALIFORNIA CROOK COOKED IN COPPER CABLE CAPER

Hmmm

Condolences...

[mikrofon]

SAN BERNARDINO

Sunburned, he no....

[texgal]

One of my kids lives in a nice house in New Orleans. They have come home two times in the last few years to find water pouring their driveway and their copper pipes missing from underneath the house. After the second incident, they put up concrete blocks and cemented them in place around the bottom of the house, electrified the plumbing lines and got a new fence that locks and can only be opened from one of the remotes that opens the gate.

It's hard to feel much sympathy for people like this guy who prey upon others.

[Fast Moving Angel]

Okay, who’s got the link to Carson’s copper clapper caper video? :-)

[UCANSEE2]

It ain't the volts it's the amps.

Precisely. I've been hit by 30,000 volts. Common in old TV sets, especially in the cool red wire thingy that plugs into the side of the tube.

#: )

Nevertheless I would imagine there was considerable amperage involved.

Of that we can be sure. However both the general public and media 'reporters' are so narrowly educated that it is just easier to boil things down to those with the highest 'shock' value (see, I can pun), in order to sell laundry detergent.

30,000 Volts is more 'exciting' than 100 amps.

[UCANSEE2]

It's hard to imagine how he could have been alive more than a few milliseconds though.

Dead? Looks alive to me.

[Carry_Okie]

He was transformed by his resistance, and will probably look revolting.

[CharacterCounts]

I was a master electrician a long time ago, and be assured that most of the current did not travel through his body or there would be nothing more of him than tiny pieces of flesh.

More likely, he was using bolt cutters to cut the wire and the cutters caused a short to the electrical cabinet which caused the explosion.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

I don’t understand how they put him in a hospital. Isn’t smoking prohibited?

[Steely Tom]

I was a master electrician a long time ago, and be assured that most of the current did not travel through his body or there would be nothing more of him than tiny pieces of flesh.

More likely, he was using bolt cutters to cut the wire and the cutters caused a short to the electrical cabinet which caused the explosion.

I understand your reasoning here, and agree with your practical insight. However, the witness report in this case was that the man was actually on fire. If we take that report at face value, it would tend to imply that the victim got a whole lot of resistive heating in a real big hurry.

I was thinking about what you said. If he severed the line with a bolt cutter, at 33kV, there'd be a hell of an arc when that line parted. In fact, if the bolt cutter had metal handles, it would arc to his hand or wrist as soon as the blades got even partially through the insulation on the cable. 33kV can jump at least two or three inches through dry air; considerably farther if there's dirt, sharp points, etc.

So they guy draws an arc right through the handle of the cutter. Then it arcs off some other part of his body to the cabinet (as you suggest) or to some grounded conduit. Then he's getting the full heating power of that current.

You may have seen the YouTube video of a man electrocuted on top of an electric passenger train (go to Google/YouTube and type in train electrocution India if you haven't). His entire body turns into an arc; there is an explosive sound like a bomb going off. He falls down dead and his body is smoking but intact.

I'm not an expert on electric rail lines in India, but I do know that the electric transport system in Philadelphia runs (or at least used to run) at 11.5 kV. If we assume that was the case in the India electrocution, the 33kV electrocution describe in the story would have been approximately 10 times as violent to a first approximation.