Vandals Cut Padlock On Power Line At North End Of Park Resulting In Power Outage

Seattle City Light car following up yesterday after Saturday night vandalism

Residents north of the Laurelhurst Park experienced a power outage about 9pm on Saturday night due to suspected individuals reportedly cutting a padlock on a power line damaging a lever.

One resident in that area sent us this report:

The power went off Saturday night  about 9:02 PM until about 12:15am.  I talked to Seattle City Light (SCL) and they showed me a significantly bent lever and a cut padlock. I heard one employee say that they were going to wait for the police to take pictures before they repaired the damage.

Some one intentionally cut a padlock and forced a disconnect lever open bending the lever in the process. The SCL employees said they were sure it was a deliberate act. I don’t know for sure when  the police arrived.

According to the SCLweb page the outage affected about 80 homes. Most homes were in the neighborhood Northeast of Laurelhurst Elementary School and some on the south side of NE 45^th Street from about 42nd Avenue NE to 45^th Avenue NE. I could see lights on in the houses behind my house on NE 44^th Street, so it was just the row of houses that line NE 45^th Street.

The pole that was vandalized is between 45^th Avenue NE and 46^th Avenue NE, right across the street from the church on the north end of the park.  I looked at the  pole yesterday and there appears to be a new metal handle and new padlock on it. Apparently they fixed Saturday night before restoring power.

 

A Laurelhurst Blog Staffer saw the enormous SCL truck on Saturday evening  making repairs, then a smaller white vehicle (pictured) doing some more repairs to the pole yesterday.