A suspected thief was severely burned on a utility poll in Dallas, causing Fire-Rescue to have to rescue him. The incident caused more than $10,000 in damage.
If copper was 51 year-old James Buster McKay's goal, then he received far more than he expected.
McKay is in Parkland Memorial Hospital in critical condition after being jolted by about 7,000 volts of electricity, possibly twice. He was burned so badly that his skin was burned onto the metal of the utility pole and his clothes were burned off or blown away.
According to Dallas Fire-Rescue spokeswoman Sherrie Lopez, "There is no amount of copper that is worth the pain this man is going to have to endure."
If it is proven that McKay was up on the pole to steal the copper, he will face a felony charge of criminal mischief.
Police believe that after Oncor was notified early in the morning abut a power outage, they fixed it and restored power and they suspect that McKay grabbed a wire when power was being restored. When police arrived on the scene they found wires on the ground and Mckay stuck between the pole and transformers.
Fire-rescue saved McKay before 7 am and transported him to the hospital with third-degree burns on approximately 50 percent of his body.
Evidently from the report, the thefts have been very expensive for Oncor and local business. Oncor estimates that about $1 million in losses from such thefts last year and over $400,000 for this year already.
Some local business owners have taken to sleeping at their stores and guarding their rooftops to prevent such thefts. In July, a business owner's son fatally shot a man on the roof of Bargain Town Variety & Furniture store in Garland. Police said thieves had targeted the store twice in two days before the shooting. During one incident about $6,000 worth of copper was stolen from the air-conditioning units.
Third-degree burns of the type Mckay suffered are the most serious type of burns and they take the longest to heal.
.