Sierra Pacific Power Company
Contact: Karl Walquist/Bob Sagan
Phone: 775-834-4835

For Immediate Release

A $1,000 reward is being offered for information about vandals who recently destroyed approximately 60 power line insulators near Battle Mountain. Sierra Pacific Power Company employees discovered the damaged insulators this weekend on power poles located about 10 miles south of Battle Mountain in Lewis Canyon.

Besides destroying equipment that belongs to the utility, the vandals are endangering their own lives and the lives of others by using the insulators for target practice, according to Greg Daft, a Sierra Pacific transmission line crew foreman.

Similar acts of vandalism in the past have knocked live power lines to the ground, endangering visitors to the Lewis Canyon area who could have been electrocuted if they had come into contact with the downed wires, Daft said. In addition, damaged equipment could start a fire.

Anyone with information about the recent acts of vandalism is urged to call the Lander County Anonymous Tip Line, 635-5416; Secret Witness at 738-3188 in Elko or 623-3667 in Winnemucca; or Sierra Pacific's Battle Mountain office at 635-2476 or 1-800-962-4168.