Investigators said they were told that the power was knocked out so that the men could break into a business.
SEATTLE — Two men have been arrested and charged with vandalizing electrical substations in Washington state, attacks that left thousands without power over the holidays.
A newly unsealed complaint charged both with conspiracy to damage energy facilities, and it charged Greenwood with possession of a short-barrelled rifle and a short-barrelled shotgun. Cellphone location data and other evidence tied them to the attacks on the four substations in Pierce County, the complaint said.
“We have seen attacks such as these increase in western Washington and throughout the country and must treat each incident seriously,” Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a statement. “The outages on Christmas left thousands in the dark and cold and put some who need power for medical devices at extreme risk.”
According to the complaint, the pair hit the first three substations early on Christmas Day, then struck the last — the Kapowsin substation — that evening. In each case, they used bolt cutters to access the properties and manipulated switches to knock out power. At the Kapowsin substation, their actions cause arcing and sparking, the complaint said.
“This makes it at least unlikely that an individual would simply happen to be at all four locations around the times they were each vandalized.”
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