Nuclear power plant is site of mother-son copper theft, say Pa. cops

(CBS/AP) SHIPPINGPORT, Pa. - As copper thefts go, it's a bit higher profile than most.

A man who used to work as a contractor at a western Pennsylvania nuclear power plant has been charged with stealing more than 1,400 pounds of scrap copper from an outlying storage building at the nuclear plant - and then having his mother sell it according to CBS Pittsburgh.

Joseph Plum Jr., 35, and Darlene Johnson, 56, both of New Brighton, are due in court for a preliminary hearing Thursday.

The Beaver County Times reports police were alerted when a scrap yard told them Johnson had been selling large amounts of industrial-grade copper.

A FirstEnergy spokeswoman says the copper was stolen from a building used to store construction material and scrap outside the secure perimeter of the company's Beaver County Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport.