Last weekend, Mikhnevo militia men and detective agency Pilgrim have caught four people who were trying to steal cable from a 0.4 kV line. All arrested people lived in Turovo village (Serpukhov district). At the moment they were detained they had around 3,000 m of aluminum cable and special devices designed to access electric line pylons. As a result of their criminal activities, two villages Ivanovskoye and Gridkovo of Stupino district were cut off from electricity. By Sunday's noon, AO MOSENERGO's repair teams have restored electric supply to these villages. Currently, Serpukhov and Mikhnevo interior departments investigate activities of the detainees.

AO MOSENERGO is not the only Russian enterprise to face the problem of theft. Rather often thefts occur in the same districts and are well-organized. They result in cutting electricity supply to populated areas. To prevent thefts, AO MOSENERGO's corporate security department takes measures to step up security at the company's facilities. Jointly with local interior departments and private security services, AO MOSENERGO carries out surveillance at locations of repeated thefts. Representatives of AO MOSENERGO's corporate security department meet with residents of areas which suffer most from thefts and ask for their help in preventing the theft of electric equipment.

To prevent thefts, jointly with criminal detectives and representatives from the Moscow License Chamber, AO MOSENERGO's corporate security department checks points of sale of non-ferrous metals. In 2002, AO MOSENERGO held 6 such raids having checked the total of 34 points. 12 points which violated the current legislation, were closed.

According to preliminary data, in 2002, the criminals carried out around 200 thefts from AO MOSENERGO's facilities. The damage from thefts approximately amounted to 11 mln rubles. As a result of investigations, 79 criminal cases were initiated against detainees, 23 cases have been passed to courts. One of the detainees has been sentenced to three years in jail.

In general, the actions of AO MOSENERGO's corporate security department help to slow the growth of thefts in the power system. After July 2002, the number of thefts decreased by more than two times.