Hotline of power engineering specialists:
IDGC of Centre - Voronezhenergo division summed up the results of work on the prevention of theft of wires and non-ferrous metals from power equipment in 2014.
During the past year security officers of the branch recorded one case of theft of the company’s property in order to sell the non-ferrous scrap. November 11, 2014 in Nizhnedevitsky district of the Voronezh region 1,840 meters of wires of types A-35 and A-16 were stolen, a total weight of 146.44 kg. Under it a criminal case under article 158 of the Criminal Code (section "a" of part 2) was filed - theft committed by a group of persons by prior agreement. Perpetrators of the crime were identified and arrested by the police. Following an investigation, a criminal case with the indictment was sent to the court of Nizhnedevitsky district. In April 2015 the District Court found the malefactors guilty and fully proven. Convicts received two years' imprisonment. Such a light sentence was imposed only because the criminals repented of their deeds, and fully compensated all the damages caused to the branch.
Since the beginning of 2015 the security staff of Voronezhenergo notes a tendency to increase the number of cases of theft of material and technical values for the purpose of illegal sale as scrap non-ferrous metal. Only during the 1st quarter of the year in various districts of the Voronezh region five cases of theft of wires and equipment were identified, presumably with a view to bring to a collection point of nonferrous metal. Power engineers do not exclude that such dynamics is related to the current difficult socio-economic situation.
"The rise in prices and a lack of stable earnings particularly affect the standard of living in small communities, where the bulk of the attempts to steal equipment and wiring takes place. However, this fact in no case exempts from criminal responsibility and is not a mitigating circumstance to justify the crime," stresses Deputy Director for Security of Voronezhenergo Konstantin Klepikov.
In total, the malefactors stole about 9 km of wires from power lines, as well as completely knocked out a transformer and stole its copper windings. For each of the mentioned facts criminal cases were filed. Police made every effort to establish the perpetrators and bring them to criminal justice.
Crimes of this kind are often revealed in hot pursuit. So, in March 2015, thanks to the rapid response of security personnel of Voronezhenergo and immediate intervention of the police two residents of the Voronezh region were detained, who had stolen 320 metres of aluminum wire from 4 spans of a power line in the village of Kolesnikovo in Olkhovatsky district of the Voronezh region.
Cooperation of the security staff of Voronezhenergo and law enforcement allows efficient work to prevent and detect theft of power equipment.
"The police, together with specialists of Voronezhenergo regularly conduct raids on receiving points of non-ferrous metals in order to identify the illegal delivery of cables and other parts of power equipment. We perform constant explanatory work among the population that the theft of any equipment from power facilities entails responsibility up to the criminal. In addition, such actions could lead to power outages in homes, hospitals, kindergartens and other socially important facilities," emphasizes Chief of the Department on provision of activity of district police officers and juvenile cases of General Directorate of the Russian Interior Ministry in the Voronezh region police colonel Nikolay Sablin.
In order to prevent the theft of non-ferrous metals, Voronezhenergo actively implements modern high-tech equipment samples. For example, from a self-supporting insulated wire (SIW) one cannot dissolve non-ferrous metals by a simple method of firing, as it is often done by criminals - the melting point of a particular plastic insulation is similar to the melting point of aluminum alloy, which wire strands are made of. This feature makes it impossible for intruders to process the wire to bring to a collection point. Information on this, as well as criminal responsibility for attempted theft of power equipment is regularly published in the media of the region, and constantly communicated to all inhabitants of the region in the framework of planned preventive actions and meetings with customers.
Power engineers warn that tampering of power equipment is not only a criminal offense, but deadly! If you have witnessed suspicious behaviour near power lines, substations, transformers and noticed that there are people at power facilities not in uniform, please, report it to the STRAIGHT PHONE LINE of POWER ENGINEERS at 8-800-50-50-115 or the short number from a landline phone at 13-50.