Two charged with stealing copper wire under Smith Avenue Bridge in St. Paul

A man and woman were charged Wednesday for stealing copper wire from service tunnels under the Smith Avenue Bridge in St. Paul.

Joseph Austin Montean, 35, of Forest Lake, and Hadi Nora Marshall, 38, of Scandia, were arrested and each charged with one count of damage or theft of an energy or telecom line and one count of possession of burglary or theft tools. Prosecutors believe the pair stole copper wire within hours of crews repairing damage from another copper theft.

Montean is scheduled to appear in court on August 27, and Marshall on August 29. Marshall has a misdemeanor theft warrant out of Anoka County after failing to appear at a pretrial meeting. Both suspects were ordered to stay away from Xcel Energy tunnels.

According to the charging documents:

Xcel Energy employees entered tunnels below the Smith Avenue Bridge on Monday to repair copper that had been stolen from a live-feed wire, causing $75,000 to $100,000 in damages. When the crews returned at around 9 a.m. Tuesday to resume the work, a mechanic spotted two people inside the tunnel, one in a black shirt and the other in a yellow safety vest. They shined a flashlight at the mechanic and turned to leave the tunnel. The mechanic alerted Xcel employees, who called the police.

When workers returned to the tunnel, they found a hole dug through the passage’s sandstone ceiling providing access to a tunnel with wires for service providers such as AT&T or Comcast. Under the hole were two-wheeled dollies and carts containing 3- to 5-foot lengths of wire cut from Xcel and other services.

Officers waited near the three tunnel exits and saw Marshall and Montean exit near Shepard Road. According to the charges, the pair dropped a collapsible ladder and backpack near the tunnel, and Marshall yelled “We’re medics!” as officers arrested them. No one else was found in the tunnels.

Montean told officers that he and Marshall were medics that went into the tunnel in search of a missing person named Cassandra. Montean said they didn’t find Cassandra, but could not give her last name or describe her. When asked about a reciprocating saw police discovered with a piece of copper wedged in it, Montean said he found it “down there.”

Marshall told investigators that she is an urban explorer who runs Medex. She said she went into the tunnels at 1:30 a.m. to find a missing explorer named Cassandra and added they encountered wire scrappers inside. She denied stealing copper from the tunnel.

Police searched Montean’s backpack and found a saw, reflective clothing and a glove designed to protect against high heat and burns. Inside Marshall’s backpack were wire cutters and a combustible gas detector. Both backpacks bore an orange tag labeled “AT&T communications interstate division,” and neither bag had medical supplies, according to the charges.

St. Paul officials have spent millions repairing copper wire that thieves have stripped out of light poles, traffic signals, and air conditioning units across the city. Gov. Tim Walz and others have urged support for legislation to combat copper wire theft, which darken street lights and contributed to a car accident in St. Paul last year that killed a man and his dog out for a walk.