No suspects, motive in substation attacks on Christmas Day

SEATTLE — Law enforcement officials still don’t have suspects or a motive for break-ins that badly damaged four Pierce County electrical substations on Christmas Day and left hundreds of customers without power Monday afternoon.

Nor are police ready to say whether the incidents were coordinated or connected to a recent string of similar incidents at substations in the Pacific Northwest and on the East Coast.

“People want to associate (Sunday’s incidents) with whatever’s going on in North Carolina and Oregon and Southern Washington,” said Sgt. Darren Moss, a Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson, referring to the locations of several earlier incidents at substations.

But “we’re ( just) guessing until we have more information,” Moss added.

The Pierce County breakins, which started early Christmas morning, struck Tacoma Power substations in Spanaway and Graham and a Puget Sound Energy substation in Puyallup.

Just after 7 p.m., police received reports of a fourth incident, this one at a PSE substation on the Kapowsin Highway northeast of La Grande, where damage caused during the break-in started a fire.

“The suspect(s) gained access to the fenced area and vandalized the equipment, which caused the fire,” according to the sheriff ’s department, which has beefed up patrols near county substations.

All four incidents involved forced entry and heavily damaged equipment, and initially cut power to more than 14,000 customers in eastern Pierce County, according to police and utility officials.

Power was restored to most of those affected customers Sunday evening, but some areas were still without electricity Monday, according to utility maps.

As of about 11 a.m. Monday, around 500 PSE customers and around 650 Tacoma Power customers were still without power due to the vandalism, the utilities said.