Two individuals, a man and woman, are accused and under arrest for allegedly toppling part of a nearly 500-foot tall tower to steal just $100 in copper from it. According to the local law enforcement head, Choctaw County Sheriff Terry Park, the tower belongs to a local radio station.
That radio station is Hugo, Oklahoma’s K95.5 station. Owned by Payne Media Group, it is still off the air (but still available online) as of the time this article was written because of the shameless theft and vandalism. The tower, located in Hugo, belongs to Payne Media Group’s station K95.5. The radio station posted a video of the damage on Facebook following the vandalism that took place Jan. 15. Posting about the matter on Facebook, the station said:
“K95.5 Radio Shopper: we are sad to report “No Radio Shopper Today” due to the criminal acts we will not be able to provide the K95.5 radio broadcast today. We are working around the clock in hopes we will return to air next week for the K95.5 Radio Shopper. Thank you for you understanding. The investigation is on going into the individuals responsible for cutting down the broadcast tower and we will share all of our information when the time is appropriate. Thank you for the amazing, overwhelming community support, law enforcement, and all that have reached out this week.”
When the incident occurred, the station posted a video of the damage, showing the downed tower as an individual narrated with what happened and what the damage was. Fox News Digital identified that individual as Will Payne of Payne Media Group.
Describing how the criminals manage to bring down radio towers, here part of the top of the tower, Mr. Payne said, “Cut the guy-wire on one leg and that’s what brought entire top sections down.” Continuing, and describing what the thieves do after taking down part of a section, he said “And then, they proceeded to disassemble.”
Continuing, he described how the copper thieves strip the sections of copper. He said. “What they do, these copper thieves, is they cut it up in these 10-foot sections.” He added, “So right now we know that there’s probably eight to 10 of these sections in the back of a truck or a van, maybe. This is what we need to be looking out for, and if you can help me out as we try to figure out our next step, what we’re gonna do to rebuild this place.”
Then asking for help in recovering the custom-built pieces and estimating how much the copper is worth, he said, “So Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, if you want to really help us out, get on the phone call every recycling place in three states. Let them know that we’re hunting down. Somebody that brought down a tower in order to get a low $100 fix a copper. Seriously that’s about all it’s gonna be worth to him. Let’s make him pay. But this is IT folks!”
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Watch that video here:
Featured image credit: K955 Facebook