The Moore County Sheriff’s Office says is investigating incidents at multiple electric substations in Moore County that were shot up on Saturday night as a “criminal occurrence,” causing more than half the county’s electric customers to lose power.
A press release from the sheriff’s office said that shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday that, “As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites.“
”Moore County Sheriff’s Deputies and various other law enforcement agencies within the county responded to the different areas and are providing further site security,” it went on to say
Anyone with any information about this act of violence should contact the Moore County Sheriff’s Office at 910-947-2931.
Workers from Duke Energy and authorities from the sheriff‘s office were at the substation off N.C. 211 near West Pine Middle School looking over the damage around midnight. Deputies were scanning the the area for bullet casings and other evidence, and vehicles were going through the woods in search of more evidence at the scene.
In a text message to a reporter, Chief Mike Cameron of the Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Department confirmed that substations had been shot at. He said the agency is “preparing to be out of power for 24 hours.”
Heavy police presence was around several gun shops and Wal-Mart in Aberdeen around 10:30 p.m. after reports of looting. One woman was detained in front Wal-Mart and police were conducting a headcount of employees outside of the store.
Data from the website poweroutage.us showed that more than 40,600 local electric customers, or about 63.7 percent of the county's customers, were without power was of 10:30 p.m. About 38,000 of those customers are Duke Energy subscribers.
David McNeill, a district representative for Duke Energy, told The Pilot late Saturday that at least two of the company’s substations were vandalized. He said he did not know the extent of the damage or how the vandalism occurred.
The power company first reported outages shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday, starting with more than 2,000 customers without power in areas along the U.S. 15-501 and N.C. 24-27 corridor around and in Carthage.
At 9:42 p.m., emergency scanner traffic reported several explosions heard in Carthage.