Thankfully, the metal belonged to the power company. I wouldn't have even known about it, except I heard noise out near the county road where they are building one of the new towers on my property. It is nearly a half-mile from where I was out back cutting firewood.
I was using my UTV where I was cutting, so I took it out to a hill on the right-of-way and saw headlights. I left the UTV headlights shining toward that area. The other headlights came through the fenced and locked gate and stayed there for a while. Then they slowly drove up toward me. I wasn't too worried, because they had to make it through a second locked gate on my property.
They said they were just finishing up at another nearby tower when they heard metal clanging, and drove to this site. It wasn't until the next morning that they found how much was actually stolen.
I certainly have my suspicions, as there aren't many ways to get a truck, trailer, or UTV to this area without going through a property adjacent to mine, or through one of my locked gates. I've found number of "boned-out" deer carcasses on that part of my property, and I can only guess where they are coming from. Anyway, I'll let the power company investigators and state police figure it out.
But, it just goes to show that people are really bold in trying to steal this stuff. This happened within 25 feet of the edge of a county road.
