I bow to these crooks: Thieves steal four miles of copper wire from light rail line. Got that? 4 miles!!!

Thieves stole 70,000 pounds of copper cable from Sound Transit’s Link light  rail line between Tukwila and Sea-Tac Airport, the agency  reported Friday.

Thieves ripped the wire from inside an elevated guideway that supports the  tracks, probably over the last several months. From end-to-end, about four miles  of cable was stolen, Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray said.

“This isn’t something that would have been done overnight,” Gray said.  “Whoever did this knew what they were going after and had some sophisticated  knowledge of how to get in.”

The wire runs along the guideway’s hollow interior to protect it from  low-level electrical current that strays from the rails, and directs it to the  ground. The current would otherwise corrode the structure’s rebar over time,  Gray said.