Thief hits police radio tower
Staff writer
It took nine days for someone to notice that $5,000 worth of copper wire was stolen from a Kansas Department of Transportation tower.
The tower near 140th and Nighthawk Rds. relays all police, fire, and ambulance calls in the county, but sheriff Rob Craft said transmissions were not interrupted.
The copper wire was intended to ground lightning that might strike.
A thief forced entry into a building at the bottom of the tower and cut the cable.
“The tower was still operational,” Craft said. “It just was not protected from lightning by the ground wire like it normally is.”
Copper wire is a hot commodity because it can be melted down and sold for scrap, Craft said.
The tower is off the road in a pasture.
“It took a while for someone to notice it, apparently,” he said.