WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Dec. 29, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A man arrested for stealing copper wire from public utilities cost West Valley City $100,000 in loss and damages this past year, police say, and may have even caused traffic accidents.
West Valley City police caught up with the man at 3600 W. 2700 South, according to court documents, after he was observed cutting the copper wire out of a sidewalk terminal, damaging two poles in the process.
Post-Miranda, he was surprisingly chatty, discussing all the areas where he had procured copper wire, police said.
“While I spoke with the male he said that he did indeed take copper wire out of the area we were currently in,” the arresting officer wrote in the probable cause affidavit for Jason Lee Powell, 52.
Powell told the officer he had done this roughly 40 times. “I asked the male if he was with a group of people or anyone else while he did this to which he roughly stated, ‘I’m the only one in the county that knows how to do this.'”
At one point Powell described starting from 2100 South and 5600 West and working to 4700 South before heading southbound on 5600 West to “then loop up back northbound and hit the other side of the street.” He also concentrated on the Rose Park area of Salt Lake City.
Powell said he had accounts at three different recycling business in the valley where he would sell the wire. “I asked the male when does he usually commit these sort of acts and he just stated ‘whenever I need money.'”
The officer wrote he had been investigating copper wire thefts over the past 12 months with this same modus operandi. “Prior to this assignment I worked as a uniformed traffic officer and responded to over 20+ fatal/serious traffic collisions involving anywhere from a 1-year-old to a 70-year-old.
“The damage the suspect has committed to critical infrastructure poses a significant risk to the public if released (he) will commit these crimes again posing a risk to a majority of large intersections in our city and the vicinity it surrounds. The suspect has a violent history and has a wanton disregard for the safety of persons, property and himself.”
Powell was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail Wednesday night on suspicion of two counts of destruction of or tampering with critical infrastructure, intentionally and knowingly, a first-degree felony, and a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief.
Thursday morning he was ordered held without bail. Court records show prior arrests for domestic violence assault, burglary, aggravated robbery, assault on a police officer and “taunting or teasing a police service animal.”
