NEW ORLEANS — Thousands of people woke up this morning without power, Entergy New Orleans says it's because someone chopped down a power pole.
The New Orleans Police Department believes a suspect was trying to steal copper from the pole.
The power was at Pleasure and Alvar Streets in New Orleans. According to Entergy New Orleans, about 8000 customers in the 7th ward and in the Bywater lost power.
Roscoe Patterson lives where the pole came down, he says he heard it come down. Patterson said, "It was like a big boom, everything went off, I felt like it was off power for about two hours."
He went on to say, "I thought a car hit one of these poles or one of the big breaker boxes or something, cause usually that what it be when it sounds like that."
An Entergy New Orleans spokesperson said in part, "The pole had been cut using a chainsaw, which was still embedded in the pole when discovered."
According to the NOPD, just before 6 a.m., a person began cutting down the abandoned telephone pole with a chainsaw. Police said, "The pole had no electricity connected to it. It's believed the person intended to steal the copper from the pole." According to police, the pole fell onto another pole and knocked the transformer off it.
Brian Myers says after hearing what he believes was a chainsaw he then heard a strange noise. He told WWL Louisiana, "I heard some chainsaw noises that woke me up out of my sleep."
He went on to say, "The sound was something like boom boom, I thought the electric box got hit you know."
NOPD says the suspect fled the scene without taking any copper or pole material. According to Entergy New Orleans, all power was restored Monday morning. Anyone with any information is urged to contact NOPD or Crimestoppers.
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