Mass copper wire theft leads to arrest

A 34-year-old Calgary man has been arrested and faces charges for allegedly stealing about 65 kilograms of copper wire.

Police said the stolen telecommunications cable was burned to remove exterior casing, and believe the recovered haul of wire was part of 220 metres of cable taken from northwest Calgary earlier this month.

The suspect was tracked down after a local scrap dealer alerted police to a man he said was trying to sell him stolen communications cable. Police said the scrap dealer was suspicious and tipped off police after doing some independent sleuthing on the website scraptheftalert.com.

The suspect was arrested on Wednesday.

Police have charged him with possession of stolen property under $5,000 and fraud under $5,000.

The theft investigation is ongoing.