A man in Sarasota County was arrested, Saturday, after allegedly steaing copper wire from a sewage lift station in Venice.

According to police reports, an alarm sounded at Sarasota County Utilities Saturday morning, signaling that power had been cut off at a sewage lift station on Jacaranda Boulevard. A team investigating the outage found that someone had cut a padlock off a fence, removed a meter box cover, and then stripped several feet of copper wire from the unit.

“We had had a theft at that location before,” said Sarasota County Utilities automation manager Fred Sherrod. “We’d had an ongoing problem over the last three years. We’ve had, so far, about 30 thefts in three years.”

The station had recently been fitted with a surveillance camera, which captured the most recent theft. The video showed a barefooted man enter the enclosure, and strip wire from the lift station control panel. When Sarasota County Deputy William Kucher watched the video he recognized the suspect as 42 year-old Jack Fredrick Knuckles. The deputy wrote in his probable cause affidavit that he “positively identified the defendant as he is well known to me and I know him by sight.”

Knuckles, who was arrested later that day, was out on bail from a previous arrest in which he was charged with stealing copper wire from a Florida Power and Light substation.

If you or someone you know are facing criminal charges, a solid defense strategy from a strong legal team is your best option. Know your rights, and contact the West Palm Beach theft defense attorneys of Eric N. Klein & Associates, P.A., today by calling 561-353-2800.