By Carly Swain

The latest case was discovered this morning at the Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative’s substation near Maysville in Jones County. Thieves made off with several hundred feet of wire.

Unlike Wednesday’s theft in Havelock, no power outages were reported, according to the utility. In that case, some 1900 customers were left in the dark because of the theft in Havelock.

The Maysville break-in was discovered around 7:30 a.m. and thieves took ground wire off 27 structures inside the substation. CCEC says it is possible the Maysville break-in also happened on Wednesday.

In both cases, thieves cut through a chain-link fence and a locked gate to get inside. Authorities have alerted area scrap metal recyclers to be on the lookout for the copper.

The utility says stealing wire from a substation is extremely dangerous, and it can easily lead to someone being killed.

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Nearly 2,000 people in Havelock started their Wednesday in the dark and electric company officials said that huge inconvenience was thanks to thieves.

Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative said someone broke into a substation early Wednesday morning and took all of the copper ground wires. That action knocked out power.

“We are thankful no one was injured or killed,” said CCEC Communications Director Lisa Galizia. “Thefts from our substations will not only knock out power to our members, they can also cause fires, explosions and electrocution.”

Crews transferred power to another substation by 6:30 Wednesday morning to get everyone back on the grid.

Havelock police are now investigating the break-in and theft.

Original Content by WITN

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