Dakota County deputies who responded to a fire in the Randolph area quickly arrested two suspected copper-wire thieves nearby -- and may have gotten the break they were looking for in a string of such thefts, authorities said on Thursday.
The county had been plagued in recent weeks with at least a half-dozen thefts of the wire, largely from farm irrigation systems in the southern part of the county. Thieves sell the wire to scrap dealers.
About 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, deputies responded to a fire in the woods near Cooper Avenue and Cannon River Boulevard, in an area known as the Cascades, and they found rolls of copper wire with the insulation being burned away, Sheriff Dave Bellows said.
The wire had apparently been stolen the evening before from Castle Rock Township.
Deputies began searching the area near the fire and found a 49-year-old man with a gas can in a car that matched the description of a car that had been seen leaving the area of the fire. Deputies soon arrested a second suspect, age 24, walking in woods near the fire, Bellows said.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the suspects are linked to the five other thefts in which copper valued at nearly $15,000 was stolen from the irrigators. The thefts each included several hundred feet of copper.
The suspects' names are not being published because they have not yet been charged.
Bellows said deputies also are trying to determine whether copper-wire thefts in Goodhue County may be linked to the Dakota County thefts.
JOY POWELL
