[October 24, 2009] Police: Man electrocuted in St. Paul manhole may have been stealing copper cable Tweet Oct 24, 2009 (Pioneer Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Police are investigating whether a man electrocuted in a St. Paul manhole Friday was trying to steal copper cable for scrapping. The 50-year-old worked for a cable maintenance company and was the brother of the owner, his sister said, but a preliminary investigation showed he wasn't doing work for the company at the time, said Sgt. Paul Schnell, police spokesman. "Investigators have a lot of work to do and need to corroborate that (theory), but he had taken a sawing device into the tunnel with him and the firm's owner didn't indicate he would have had any work to be done in that area," Schnell said. The incident briefly knocked out power to the state Capitol, St. Joseph's Hospital and St. Paul College, Xcel Energy said. The man found dead in the manhole at Virginia Street and University Avenue, after officials were called at 9:05 a.m., was Thomas Stanke, of Blaine, said his sister, Kelly McAuly. Stanke had worked for his brother's company, TDI Cable Maintenance, off and on for more than 20 years, McAuly said. McAuly said she didn't know all the details about what police believe Stanke was doing and couldn't discuss it. A man who answered the phone at TDI Cable, which has a Lakeland mailing address and a Hudson, Wis., office, said no one was available to comment. Police believe Stanke's saw blade had contact with a high-voltage wire, Schnell said. Through his work for the company, Stanke "would have had equipment to both access the tunnel as well as make it somewhat safe for a human to be in the tunnel," Schnell said. Police think he was electrocuted "very shortly after he entered the manhole," he said. While Stanke was in the manhole, an associate of his was on the street, Schnell said. It wasn't immediately clear whether he worked for the same company. Police are trying to determine whether the associate knew what Stanke was doing, but they have had only a brief conversation with him because he was distraught, Schnell said. After firefighters made sure power was off and it was safe to enter the manhole, a crewmember in a harness was lowered into the 8-foot-deep hole and recovered the body about 11:15 a.m. The Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration had investigators at the site and were reviewing the situation, a spokesman said. McAuly described her brother as a "fun-loving guy who loved his kids and his family." He had two children and a stepchild, she said. Stanke grew up in Antigo, Wis., and loved going back for the Fourth of July, McAuly said. He and a brother would set up "big firework displays, and people would say they were better than the ones cities put on," she said. Power to St. Joseph's Hospital and St. Paul College was out for a "momentary blip," from 9:03 to 9:04 a.m., said Xcel Energy spokesman Tom Hoen. The Capitol and some state office buildings had an outage of about 30 minutes, during which emergency generators were on, said Dave Fielding, director of plant management for the Capitol complex. The Administration Building, State Office Building and the Transportation Building also experienced the 30-minute outage, Fielding said. "There really wasn't any impact as a result," he said. "For some period of time, people may have been without computers." St. Joseph's did not have to use generator backup because two feeds go into the hospital and only one was affected, a hospital spokeswoman said. At the college, the power went off for a second or two, a spokesman said, with no significant effect. Residential customers in the area weren't affected, Hoen said. Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. To see more of the Pioneer Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.twincities.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]