A man and a woman were arrested Saturday on charges of stealing powerlines in a Florida neighborhood, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.
According to an arrest report, the pair, identified as Charles Mahoy, 41, and Andrea Foster, 45, were in residents’ yards cutting down powerlines, and neighbors said they repeatedly asked the couple to leave.
The report said that when a deputy asked Mahoy about the situation, he replied that he was “just cutting up some of the powerline that was laying on the ground.”
Neighbors told deputies that Mahoy and Foster were loading the cut powerlines into a white truck, which authorities said they found parked near the homes.
Mahoy told deputies that the truck was his, authorities said.
Spools of powerline wire were loaded in the bed of the truck, deputies said.
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The report stated that Mahoy was "intentionally depriving the owner of the wire (Duke Energy) to their usage of the property in order to appropriate the property to his own use," and that the "theft was facilitated by conditions created from Hurricane Irma."
Mahoy said his house was damaged in the hurricane and he was cutting the wire because he needed money, and that he didn’t think it was stealing because the lines were on the ground, the report said.
The wire that was in the truck was valued at about $5,000, deputies said.
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The arrest report said deputies found what looked like methamphetamine and marijuana inside the truck. The drugs were located inside a Play-Doh container in the center-front storage compartment of the vehicle, deputies said.
A deputy also found a glass smoking pipe and a small amount of loose marijuana inside a purse in the vehicle, according to the report.
The pair also face drug and felony trespassing charges.
Mahoy had been out on bail on other trespassing charges when the arrest happened, authorities said.
Deputies said they are requesting that Mahoy’s bond be revoked and that he be placed on a no-bond status.
Authorities said that if released, they will formally request Mahoy be fitted with a GPS monitoring system due to his habitual and repeat violations of theft and burglaries.
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