(Radio Iowa) – Officials say a vandal trying to steal copper wire risked being electrocuted by 69-thousand volts of electricity and raided an active power substation in southwest Iowa on Monday night. About 11-hundred Clarinda area residents lost power about 11 P-M and MidAmerican Energy spokesman Geoff Greenwood says a utility crew quickly identified the cause of the outage.

Greenwood says repairs to the damaged substation took a few hours to complete.

Greenwood says vandals have tried to take copper wire from MidAmerican substations in the past, and it’s a potentially deadly proposition.

Greenwood says they’ve seen similar acts at substations in Hastings, Glenwood, and twice in Emerson. According to the Page County Sheriff’s Office, a suspect was arrested Tuesday in connection with the incident.