Outage inquiry stalled

A Deschutes County Sheriff's Office investigation of possible gunshot vandalism to the Tollgate power substation on April 11 has turned up no leads.

According to sheriff's office reports, the investigating deputy is not certain the outage, which affected some 850 Central Electric Cooperative customers, was actually caused by gunshots.

A CEC technician reportedly told the deputy that the damage to the substation equipment could have been caused by an animal crawling around.

However, no remains were found.

A Tollgate resident reported hearing gunshots prior to the failure of the substation, but it is not clear if the gunfire occurred immediately before the outage or some time earlier. CEC is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of anyone responsible for vandalism to the station. According to sheriff's office reports, the damage to the substation equipment is estimated at $25,000.