Series of power station vandalisms now has the attention of the FBI

There has been a recent spate of vandalisms taking place at power stations in the U.S. state of Arkansas. 

Because of the frequency with which they’ve taken place, coupled with the fact that they’re all fairly local to one another, the FBI believes they might be connected:

On August 21, in Cabot, Arkansas, an individual or, perhaps more likely, a group of individuals, scaled a 100-foot, high-voltage transmission tower and chopped through its cables with a saw. They then removed a few bolts from the bottom of the tower, attached a half-inch thick cable to the tower with a 15-inch eyebolt, and pulled the cable across the nearby Union Pacific railroad track “in an apparent attempt to utilize a moving train to bring down the tower,” according to the FBI. 

This rather brazen act of vandalism closed state highway 321 for the day.

A little over a month later, on August 29 at an Entergy Arkansas substation down the road, an intentionally set fire consumed the substation’s control house, though it caused no power outages in the nearby community.

Making the story a bit more curious is the fact that the arsonist left a message on a metal plate outside the substation that read, “You should have expected us.” 

Then, during the week of October 7th, in Jacksonville, Arkansas, about 15 minutes up the road, a person climbed over a utility company fence to get to a “Skytrim” tractor. 

The tractor itself includes a circular saw blade at the end of a rather large, extendable arm for the purpose of cutting down tree limbs. Naturally, this was put to use by the trespasser.

The person used the tractor to bust through a large cattle gate, taking it down two roads before going off-road towards some out-in-the-open high-voltage transmission lines. Turning on the saw, he or she then proceeded to cut down a pair of key utility towers.

This caused 10,000 First Electric Cooperative customers to lose power.

In a press conference, the FBI stated that they believe the vandals likely have “above-average knowledge or skill in electrical matters.” Anyone with tips on these stories can go to the FBI's Little Rock field office at (501) 221-9100 or submit their information via Little.Rock@ic.fbi.gov.

There is a $25,000 reward for information on any of these three incidents.

Story via: arstechnica.com