'Massive damage': Man in high-vis charged after inner-city copper cable theft

A man has been charged after he allegedly posed as a high-vis-wearing worker and stole copper from an inner-city Auckland substation, resulting in costly repair bills for nearby dwellings.

Police say a 42-year-old will appear in court charged with burgling a Vector-owned substation on Madeira Lane, Grafton on Saturday.

The incident cut power outage and left apartment residents and a historic charitable trust dealing with extensive electrical damage.

Auckland City CIB Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend said the man allegedly targeted copper casings from the substation, which powers an apartment complex.

“While committing his offending the man allegedly created tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.”

“Offenders that think a high-vis vest is a good disguise should think again, we’re well aware of the tactic and this doesn’t work.”

The man has been summonsed to Auckland District Court on October 12 charged with burglary and intentional damage.

The case has also raised fresh questions about how the offender gained access to the substation after CCTV appeared to show him entering without forcing the door. Photo / Kāhui St David's

This was the second time in 12 months copper has been taken from the site.

CCTV footage obtained by the Herald showed a man wearing high-vis clothing and a hard hat approaching the substation carrying a plastic rubbish bin early on Saturday morning.

The footage shows him opening the door before leaving after five minutes.

Soon afterwards, residents reported major power surges, flickering lights and appliances behaving erratically.

A 42-year-old man has been charged after allegedly breaking into an Auckland substation and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage. Photo / Kāhui St David's

A Neo Apartments resident said he recognised the signs as he was home during last year’s theft.

“The oven just went absolutely berserk with the beeping and the error codes as the lights were dimming and flickering.”

He said the full extent of this year’s damage was still becoming clear, but the power surge “blew or wrecked most of the power meters for each apartment” and would need replacing.

The outage also affected Kāhui St David’s, a charitable trust next to the substation.

Director Paul Baragwanath said the trust was still recovering after damage from a similar theft almost a year ago.

“We still have not been able to fix the damage caused to our electrical systems from last time. Parts have to be made overseas,” he said.

“Our house and stage lighting is still partially out.”

Police say the man targeted copper casings at the Madeira Lane facility in Grafton, triggering a power cut and major electrical surges. Photo / Kāhui St David's

Baragwanath said Saturday’s incident caused further damage despite efforts to protect the trust from another surge.

“We installed a break system to stop this happening again but it has jumped it and done massive damage to the electrical systems, AV, lighting systems and the 1905 pipe organ in Kāhui St David’s.”

He questioned why more had not been done to secure critical infrastructure after the previous theft.

“Now, the police are reliant on the security camera system of a community charitable trust because Vector doesn’t even install cameras.”

The latest incident raised questions about how the alleged offender gained access to the substation.

The Herald asked Vector whether the person shown in the footage was authorised to access the site, what security measures were in place, and whether any security upgrades were made after last year’s theft.

A Vector spokesperson said they would not comment while police investigate.

“We are assisting them in every way possible to help establish the facts. To protect the integrity of the investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.”