Toasted Scrapper?

[Meddle]

Or something else?

Detroit police are investigating the death of a man who was found, on fire, at the top of an electrical pole Friday.

“I don’t know if he’s up there trying to steal, trying to fix something, I don’t know. … You don’t want to assume,” Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens said.

Stephens said authorities were contacted by someone who saw the man on the pole at Sunderland Road and St. Martins Avenue on Detroit’s west side.

Stephens said late Friday that the man had not yet been identified. She said police are waiting for a report from the medical examiner’s office.

http://www.freep.com/article/2012110...cal-pole-death



If it was a utility worker accident, I think there would have been more said.

[jcole]

If it had been a utility worker, they would have known why he was up there.

[detroitmale]

It was someone trying to steal electric service that the taxpayers would have ended up paying for. So, good new!!!! He got what he deserved!

[Hamtragedy]

I once saw a squirrel that hung from a wire by his teeth for weeks behind a house I was working on on Lodge Drive. Poor guy probably got zapped, and rather than fall to the ground he caught the wire with his jaw. Bad idea.

[Django]

That squirrel was a theif and he got what he deserved.

[DetroitPlanner]

I think before you dis miss this poor gent as a thief I think the whole story would be needed. It is one thing if he was a landlord trying to make his property more attractive by offering free electricity and quite another if he was an unemployed man trying to keep his family warm

[wolverine]

I think before you dis miss this poor gent as a thief I think the whole story would be needed. It is one thing if he was a landlord trying to make his property more attractive by offering free electricity and quite another if he was an unemployed man trying to keep his family warm

....wait, what ?

[leapfrog]

I think before you dis miss this poor gent as a thief I think the whole story would be needed. It is one thing if he was a landlord trying to make his property more attractive by offering free electricity and quite another if he was an unemployed man trying to keep his family warm

Using that logic, its alright if I knock over a liquor store or mug an old lady, as long as I buy groceries for my family with the money?

[piczka]

Perhaps he was tring to rescue a cat!

[wolverine]

Using that logic, its alright if I knock over a liquor store or mug an old lady, as long as I buy groceries for my family with the money?

Apparently. There's certainly a different crop of people here that have in threads past tried to justify crime. Maybe it's a DetroitYes thing? Maybe he's being facetious? [[some folks are serious)

I mean, I make certain assumptions based off facts.
- Sensible people don't climb power poles unless they're utility worker.
- It's illegal.
- They were obviously determined to get something.

I think it's just as bad to fabricate a sob story scenario, then accuse people to jumping to assumptions.

[DetroitPlanner]

Not everyone who commits a crime deserves the death penalty. The punishment should fit the crime. I would have no sympathy if it was a section 8 landlord. I would however have it if the situation was dire.

[MaxCady]

Perhaps he worked for Google and was taking some aerial photos!

[Hamtragedy]

If you climb a utility pole, anywhere, you run serious risks. I'm pretty sure Detroit is not the only place where you can see the insulation dangling off the wires. Not to mention those old "ladders" that are left on a handful of really old ones.

The splinters should be the first indication that this is probably not a great idea. Darwin at work here.

[Django]

Probably just someone trying to keep his people warm. Wonder where his ppl are at now, or in 3 months. "Got what he deserved" bullshit.

[prokopowicz]

There's no reason to cheer for this death, but there is no defending him either. Climbing a pole to steal is illegal and utterly reckless. It's like trying to pick up hubcaps in the middle of a freeway. It could also endanger or at least inconvenience of a lot of other people if the power goes out. If the guy had any family depending on him, then it is beyond reckless. He didn't deserve to die, and nobody gave him the death penalty; he foolishly killed himself.

[wolverine]

Not everyone who commits a crime deserves the death penalty. The punishment should fit the crime. I would have no sympathy if it was a section 8 landlord. I would however have it if the situation was dire.

Of course no one deserves to die. He killed himself committing a crime. Why should he be memorialized by you in this thread.

Incidents like this should receive huge publicity to make a point. Stealing is not worth your life.

[DetroitPlanner]

If no one deserves to die then why are so many people in this thread cheering his death? Its dammed barbaric!

[wolverine]

People react to situations in different ways and what you say is entirely up to interpretation.

I wish he would have been arrested, though 99% chance he would have gotten away without anyone knowing had his intentions been successful, unless they were of course suicide. Who could be that dumb to do what he did.

You said: "quite another if he was an unemployed man trying to keep his family warm"

Call me ignorant of Detroit, but I live in a city where free heat and an apartment is available to homeless families on the city's dime. Maybe that's not the case in Detroit, and I understand the struggle is complex and at least for now we can assume this guy might have chosen to scrap instead of hold people up at gunpoint. But we don't know that, and we don't know if this guy is even in touch with his family.

That said, why even bring it up DP? If some posters react with vengeance attitude, why go the complete opposite? Your opinions are different on whether it's a family man or landlord?

I don't really think it's necessary to sympathize. And I don't think there's anything wrong with making assumptions off the limited information in the article. What I think is most important is this is another message that crime isn't worth your life.

[CLAUDE G]

I would have much rather see the guy get stuck up there and have the fire department come and rescue and arrest him, than see the guy die.

Nobody deserves to die like that.

[RickBeall]

I like to think of him as the angel in the Christmas tree, all lit up.

[Meddle]

Has anybody found any updates on this as to what really happened?