3 Suspects Arrested In Meigs County Black Out

Kelly Whitted, Chad Parker and Tommy Fugate are accused of stealing copper and in effect shutting down power for 90 percent of Meigs County.

"It's hard to prepare for that," says Robert McCarty of the Volunteer Energy Cooperative (VEC).

VEC workers scrambled Friday morning to get the Goodfield Sub station back on line.

Around 3 am, detectives say Whitted and Parker, both from Meigs County and Fugate from Athens, cut their way into the power station and removed 140 pounds of copper ground wire. The missing wire caused a black out that extended from the Hiwassee River to Hwy 68.

"I just woke up and it's dark in the house," says Bobby Roberts, a famrer outside of Decatur.

Roberts and thousands of others were without power for close to 5 hours. Businesses opened late and schools closed.

"There's a lot of damage to our equipment on site. We could be up to $200,000 in damage," says McCarty.

Stealing copper from Power Stations like this one is an incredibly dangerous business. One of the transformers you can see behind me pumps up to 161 kilo-volts of electricity. That means if you get shocked, that's like getting hit with more than 17,000 "9 volt" batteries.

"It's not real smart. It's a pretty stupid idea to come in and try to take copper wire off of something that's energized," says Clyde Jolley, Vice President of VEC Operations.

The three suspects were picked up in Roane County, with the missing wires in their back seat. They had tried selling the metal to a scrap yard for around 450 dollars.

The value of the metal authorities say, no where near the amount in damages to the plant and to businesses who opened late.