A 54-year-old Denver man has been arrested in Eagle County for allegedly stealing more than 300 pounds of copper wire from utility poles.
James A. Bull is being held in the Eagle County Detention Center on $7,500 bond, according to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.
On Friday sheriff’s deputies were called to an area north of the Eagle County Regional Airport in Gypsum and found Bull and two other men stripping utility poles of wire and coiling it on spools.
They had about 306 pounds of wire worth about $1,000.
Bull told deputies he was under contract to do the work on land belonging to the Union Pacific Railroad.
Deputies contacted the railroad and Bull’s story unraveled, the sheriff’s office said in a written release.
Two Colorado Springs men working with Bull were recruited and duped by him, the sheriff’s office said. They are not suspects in the case.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
