North Carolina sheriff says 'intentional vandalism' at substations caused power outages for 40K customers

A North Carolina sheriff and power company official said "intentional vandalism" at substations has caused outages for about 40,000 customers expected to last longer than 24 hours. 

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields reported that the mass power outage across the county is being investigated "as a criminal occurrence," according to the sheriff’s office's Facebook page. 

Just after 7 p.m. on Saturday, several communities across Moore County began experiencing power outages. As utility companies began responding to the different substations, "evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites," the sheriff’s office said. 

Moore County sheriff’s deputies and various other law enforcement agencies within the county responded to the different areas and are providing further site security, the sheriff’s office added.