2 men arrested after cutting fence at Virginia power facility, police say

Police arrested two men in Virginia in connection with a burglary at a power facility in Loudoun County. 

The men were arrested early Saturday morning when deputies from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of two men cutting a fence at a Dominion Energy property, the office said in a news release. The property is leased to another entity, the sheriff’s office said. 

When deputies arrived on the scene, they located the two suspects and arrested them. The men had breached the storage yard, and deputies found a bag with wire cutters at the location. 

The suspects were identified as Christopher J. Macmillan, 51, and Joshua L. Settle, 38. Both are from Manassas, Virginia.

The men have been charged with possession of burglary tools, attempted larceny, trespassing, destruction of property and conspiracy to commit larceny. Both have been transported to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center. 

Macmillan is being held without bond, while Settles was given a $7,500 secured bond. It was not immediately clear if the men had legal representation as of Saturday afternoon. Calls from CBS News to a public information officer were not answered. 

According to police, the incident remains under investigation, but the men appeared to be there to steal copper wire. 

Officials from Dominion Energy, which operates in 16 states and provides power to seven million customers, said in the news release that there was no breach of an adjacent substation. 

Power grid attacks have been in the headlines lately. Residents of Moore County, North Carolina were in the dark for days after substations were deliberately damaged. In June 2022, the Department of Homeland Security warned that domestic extremists have been developing plans to disrupt the power grid since at least 2020.