POWER THIEVES PUTTING LIVES AT RISK

Indoor marijuana growers are stealing up to $5 million in electricity each
year from B.C. Hydro.

They are also endangering the lives of Hydro personnel.

"There is a danger to hydro crews, meter readers, line crews, our security
staff," said B.C. Hydro spokesman, Wayne Cousins.

"It's a danger to emergency responders like police or fire department, city
inspectors, neighbours. There is a risk of fire, of electrocution, power
outages."

In the year ending March 31, Hydro discovered 712 "electrical diversions,"
mostly in the Lower Mainland - more than triple the 224 it unearthed in
1993-94.

For the first six months of this fiscal year alone, there were 358 cases.

Cousins said almost all the power thefts were for grow lights for indoor
operations.

"If your neighbour is diverting electricity for whatever reason, that has an
impact on all of us," Cousins said. "If an individual is stealing
electricity, we all pay for that."

He said the Crown corporation prosecutes offenders. He had no figures on
how many people have been prosecuted, or how much money has been recouped.

"We would first bill them and, if that was not successful, we would take
both the criminal side and the civil side," Cousins said.

The average theft bill is about $3,000.

The Organized Crime Agency of B.C., which fights organized crime, said the
improper rigging of power lines by marijuana growers to steal electricity
has resulted in electrocutions.

It said grow operations put communities at risk of home invasions and other
serious crime because they attract undesirables into stable residential
areas.

And police face the danger of booby traps.

Delta police recently found a pipe bomb with a fuse near a jar of cyanide in
the entrance to a grow operation. An explosion could have triggered the
release of cyanide gas.

Richmond RCMP discovered a trip-wire rigged to trigger a shotgun in the
direction of an intruder.