Man dies during attempted copper theft

This is what it's come to.

A 21-year-old Woodland, N.J., man was electrocuted while attempting to steal copper wiring from a vacant Bucks County building shortly before midnight Aug. 16.

Patrick D. Dembrowski was dead when officers arrived at the former METCO Manufacturing building at County Line Road and Titus Avenue in Warrington, police said Wednesday.

Dembrowski, an employee with an auto auction facility in Mansfield, N.J., used a set of bolt cutters to get past the lock of a chain-link fence marked with a “high voltage” sign to get to an outdoor generator, police said.

He then attempted to cut into a piece of copper wiring inside the generator. A female companion called 911 when volts of electricity started coursing through Dembrowski’s body. When officers arrived, he was dead, police said.

Warrington Lt. Joseph Knox said that copper theft is very common and that Dembrowski’s death should be a warning to others that this type of illegal activity is dangerous. The incident remains under investigation.
-PhillyBlurbs