Three arrested in copper wire theft that impacted Las Vegas airport, Strip hotel
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Las Vegas Metro police confirmed three people are arrested in connection to copper wire theft that impacted power for Harry Reid International Airport and a Las Vegas Strip property.
The incident impacted a total of 12 customers. Airport officials say LAS lost power around 3:23 p.m. that day. The Cosmopolitan also faced an outage.
NV Energy began restoring power at 4:44 p.m.
A spokesperson for NV Energy said in a statement, “NV Energy believes the copper theft on Monday ultimately damaged several pieces of equipment which led to the outage in our community.”
Las Vegas police say they responded to the theft around 5:38 p.m. in the 5600 block of Procyon Street. near Russell and I-15.
The estimated loss is about $30,000.
The 3 arrested were:
- Paul Andrews, 45
- Chad Shurman, 41
- Branden Henry, 29
They were booked into the Clark County Detention Center for grand larceny, $25K, but less than $100K.
According to a Metro Police report, an NV Energy Employee was alerted of the power outage Monday and contacted security.
When security arrived, they found a cut in the fence “large enough for a human to enter.” They also found multiple pieces of copper wire that had been cut from breakers.
The report states security told Metro they had video surveillance of what appeared to be two men entering the property on Monday and leaving about 20 minutes later. However, security told officers because the men were out of the motion sensor lights, the video quality was poor.
Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact LVMPD Detectives by phone at 702-828-3204. To remain anonymous, use the Crime Stoppers website.
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