Burglaries at 3 substations cause power outages for more than 14K in Pierce County

Burglaries at two Tacoma Public Utilities substations and one Puget Sound Energy substation knocked out power for more than 14,000 Pierce County residents early Sunday morning, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department announced.

According to the sheriff’s department, the first burglary call came in just before 5:30 a.m. for a substation located at 22312 46th Ave. E. in Spanaway.

When deputies arrived, they saw there was forced entry into the fenced area. Nothing had been taken, but equipment was vandalized, causing a power outage in the area.

Deputies learned of a second burglary at a substation located at 8820 224th St. E. in Graham. Nothing was taken at that site either, but the equipment had been damaged.

A third burglary and vandalization of a substation at 10915 144th St. E. in Puyallup was reported by Puget Sound Energy, according to the sheriff’s department.

The burglaries are currently under investigation by the sheriff’s department. It is not known if there was a motive or if the burglaries were a coordinated attack on the power system.

As of 3:45 p.m., TPU was reporting just over 2,000 customers without power.

Earlier this month, Puget Sound Energy said that it was monitoring its infrastructure and confirmed that it had two incidents in late November at two different substations in the wake of other substation attacks across the country.

Early this morning, two Tacoma Power substation facilities were attacked in east Pierce county. Currently, 7,300 customers are without power as a result. Law enforcement has been notified. We are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power. https://t.co/DsH127j1sY pic.twitter.com/yJGXnSDkpo — Tacoma Public Utilities (@MyTPU) December 25, 2022