An attempt to steal thousands of pounds worth of cable was foiled by Newark police.
Response officers disturbed thieves while they were ripping hundreds of metres of cable out of the ground.
The policing team were in the right place at the right time to stop the theft, just after midnight on Sunday (1 March).
Officers were conducting patrols on the A617, near Kelham, following a spate of high-value cable thefts in recent weeks.
Multiple vehicles were seen to speed away from police as they approached – prompting them to believe they were up to no good.
On closer inspection, officers found around 1,700 metres of cables had been ripped out from under the road by the fleeing thieves.
Response and neighbourhood officers at that stage worked in tandem to quickly track down one of the vehicles believed to have been involved.
The car was found abandoned in the Newark area, with a manhole lifting tool and equipment consistent with cable theft all discovered onboard.
Further searches then resulted in a second vehicle being located nearby that police believe was involved in the theft – this time with someone inside it.
Several items linked to the theft of cable were found onboard the vehicle, which was discovered to have been stolen from a Newark address two days earlier.
A 35-year-old man was duly arrested on suspicion of theft of cable and theft of a motor vehicle.
The Newark neighbourhood policing team has been working with response officers on an operation targeting those involved in copper cable theft for several weeks now following a series of reports in the area.
These inquiries resulted in officers spotting and pulling over a vehicle on 17 February that they linked to the theft of tens of thousands of pounds worth of cable.
After again finding tools consistent with theft onboard, officers arrested two men, aged 40 and 48, on suspicion of theft of cable, attempted theft and going equipped for theft.
Inspector Charlotte Ellam, District Commander for Newark and Sherwood, said:
“The officers involved in this incident deserve great credit for being so vigilant and working together to achieve a positive result.
“Our neighbourhood and response teams have been running an operation together targeting the high-value theft of cable from in and around Newark for several weeks now, following multiple reports of this nature.
“As part of this, our officers have been conducting rural patrols to try and deter and catch offenders in the act, with one such patrol leading to a theft attempt being thwarted on Sunday.
“This spot ultimately prevented hundreds and hundreds of metres of cable from being stolen, while response and neighbourhood officers also tracked down two vehicles believed to be involved before making an arrest too.
“The techniques used to extract the copper cabling in these high-value thefts are very dangerous, while they can also lead to costly power outages.
“We’re therefore extremely keen to put a stop to this criminal activity, so are pleased to have made the arrests and seizures we have over the weekend and in recent weeks as part of this ongoing operation.”
