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PA BEN
05-18-2007, 09:49 PM
I didn’t catch where this happened, but today on the news I heard that a gang banger climbed into a substation over razor wire to tag [spray paint] the high side of the transformer and got burnt bad. I guess he lived. :o

Dbearman
05-18-2007, 10:52 PM
The tagger climbed over a fence and tagged a bushing on a Public Service Company of New Mexico sub-station transformer in Santa Fe . The voltage was 115 kv and the tagger died today at a Phoenix burn center . What the hell was this guy thinking ? He called 911 himself on his cell phone.

Ghostrider
05-19-2007, 09:50 AM
News: Santa Fe / NM, Crime / Police Notes








Teen tagger shocked at electrical substation dies

(36 comments; last comment posted Yesterday 07:38 pm)
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By Jason Auslander | The New Mexican
May 18, 2007

Friend says 18-year-old was quiet, 'very artistic'

Police said Friday that the Santa Fe man who was burned over 80 percent of his body at a northwest-side electrical substation died at an Arizona hospital.

Aaron Vigil, 18, died at the Arizona Burn Center in Phoenix, where he was taken after a Wednesday afternoon incident apparently caused by his trying to spray-paint graffiti on high-voltage equipment.

Deputy Police Chief Benjie Montaño said family members told police they didn’t want to speak to news reporters Friday.

However, a friend and former classmate at Capital High School described Vigil as “a quiet person and very artistic.”

Santiago Maestas, 17, said Friday that he was Vigil’s best friend in high school before they both dropped out last year when they were in the 11th grade.

He said Vigil moved to Santa Fe four years ago from Visalia, Calif., to live with his father. Vigil didn’t have a lot of other friends, Maestas said, although the two of them continued to hang out regularly after dropping out of school.

at Maestas’ house. “He seemed all right,” Maestas said.

Vigil liked to draw portraits and write and paint graffiti, Maestas said. “He liked to tag a lot,” he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, police say, Vigil climbed a high, graffiti-covered concrete wall topped with razor wire to get inside a Public Service Company of New Mexico substation near Buckman Road. Officials say a stream of spray paint might have caused 115,000 volts of electricity to arc into his body, leaving him only partially clothed and badly burned.

After police and medics responded to a 911 call from his cell phone, Vigil was flown to University Hospital in Albuquerque and then airlifted to the Phoenix hospital.

Police have said they believe others might have been with Vigil at the time, partly because his body was found outside the walls when emergency workers arrived. Investigators are skeptical he could have gotten out on his own, considering his condition.

Investigators also believe Vigil had help getting inside the substation, and he might not have made the 911 call himself, Montaño has said.

The incident caused $20,000 in damage to an electrical transformer, Montaño said Friday. State officials also have blamed the momentary power outage caused by the incident for knocking out computer service to various state agencies, including a statewide crash of the state Motor Vehicle Division’s computer system.

Maestas said Friday that he had called others who knew Vigil but didn’t find anyone who was with him Wednesday afternoon. “I think he was by himself,” Maestas said.

He speculated his friend was trying to put his mark in an area that hadn’t been tagged before. “He was probably trying to reach a spot that was not real common,” Maestas said.

Contact Jason Auslander at 995-3877 or jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.

Squizzy
05-23-2007, 08:31 AM
Went to fault in a 132kV switch yard one time, what had happened as the story goes a guy got pi$$ed off he had lost his money at the casino so he went to substation to get back at them by knocking off the power. So he went to the substation climbed a 132kV Current Transformer........ Well he did succeed in getting the power off for about the length off time it took to set the breaker to switch in the alternate circuit. When I got there the police were scraping the fat off the porcellain which was rather untidy. Now at the training center on one of the notice boards they have this scorched bit of shoelace which is still tied. I don't have any sympathy for them if they are stupid enough to ignore the ample warnings around substations then climb the fencing and walls then climb something that is humming with electricity well you deserve a Darwin Award for removing your stupid a$$ from the gene pool...

PA BEN
05-23-2007, 08:51 AM
A home owner killed himself when he closed in his own cutout while standing on a aluminum ladder and using a wood pole with a bent nail in the end. He was the only one off the transformer so the power Co. opened the cutout and left the door hanging. The Co.’s policy now is to remove the door.;)