
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
PILGRIM — A late-evening copper theft in Pilgrim ended in handcuffs Tuesday after deputies came upon a mud-stuck truck, cut utility lines and piles of stripped wire in a field.
Martin County Sheriff John Kirk and his deputies responded to North Wolf Creek Road after a trespassing complaint. When they arrived, they found Kassandra Hamilton, 33, of Louisa, struggling to rock a truck free from the muck.

What caught their eye, though, were the poles towering overhead. The communication lines had been slashed and their remnants lay scattered in the grass.

In a nearby field, deputies spotted heaps of insulation and roughly 45 feet of copper cable, its colorful coating still clinging like a trail of evidence.

In the back of the truck, deputies spotted a ladder and other equipment believed to have been used to cut the lines.
Authorities arrested Hamilton on the spot.
She was booked into the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center at 8:08 p.m.
Hamilton is facing charges of criminal mischief in the first degree (tampering with key infrastructure assets), a felony, and trespass of key infrastructure assets, a first offense misdemeanor.
