Shock burns clothes off man who cut power line with hacksaw, Colorado cops say

A man cut through a power line, causing an outage, burning his clothes and melting a hacksaw before fleeing, Colorado police reported.

“We assumed we were looking for a body,” police in Commerce City said in a Friday, Dec. 13, news release. “But we never found one.”

Power crews investigating an outage at 5 a.m. Dec. 12, found the scorched items, an abandoned bicycle and a severed power line near a transformer, police said.

They notified police, who began looking for the person responsible.

“We were out in the area with drones, we had our firefighter partners using infrared technology to try to find this individual, we found charred clothes covered in ash,” police spokeswoman Joanna Small told KUSA. “So we can only assume that maybe they stripped out of their top layer of clothing, and walked away.”

After not finding a body, officers reviewed security video showing a man, whom they could not identify, fleeing the area following two explosions, police said.

“This guy is lucky to be alive… and we are hoping maybe you can help us find him,” police said. “He was literally electrocuted.”

Officers warned the public to be on the lookout for the man, who may be “semi-nude” and in “desperate need of medical attention,” police said.

Police posted photos of the bicycle, charred clothing and a melted hacksaw.

“This crime caused a lot of damage — both to infrastructure and probably the suspect too,” police said.

They asked that anyone with information call 303-289-3626.

Commerce City is about a 5-mile drive northeast from downtown Denver.

This story was originally published December 16, 2024 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Shock burns clothes off man who cut power line with hacksaw, Colorado cops say."