This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Two men were arrested after they allegedly attempted to steal copper wire from Little Cottonwood Canyon, Unified Police said Monday.

A 60-year-old man and a 29-year-old man were booked into Salt Lake County jail Monday morning, police said.

Police recognized the vehicle the men were driving early Monday morning at about 6 a.m. in an area where several thousand feet of copper wire have been stolen in the past few weeks, according to a probable cause statement.

Police spoke to the men near the Quarry Trail in Little Cottonwood Canyon, police said. The older man was walking down the trail and the younger man stayed in the vehicle, the statement says.

When police questioned the man on the trail, he claimed he was just hiking, the statement says, but when police questioned the man in the vehicle, he allegedly admitted he had been helping the older man steal copper wire over the past several weeks.

The younger man told police they had been "getting the copper wire ready most of the night," and had left the area at about 2:30 a.m., then returned, the statement says.

In the car, police found a gun, wire-cutting tools and wood-cutting tools that could be used to cut the top of power poles where the wire was located, the statement says.

Recent thefts have caused "tens of thousands of dollars" in damage to poles and the transfer station, the statement says.

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