Two men were electrocuted after cutting through an electric line at a Tyngsborough industrial park Wednesday.
One of the victims was identified as Roland Farland, 58, of Nashua, N.H.
Police said the men may have been trying to steal material from the location.
NewsCenter 5's Sean Kelly reported that the scene initially looked like a tragic accident for two electrical workers, but closer inspection revealed the cause.
"They had made a cut into a wire that they thought was a ground wire, but it turned out to be live," Tyngsborough police officer Richard Burrows said.
They were electrocuted with approximately 13,000 volts of electricity.
National Grid workers shut the power off so that emergency crews could pull the men away from the sub-station. They spotted freshly-cut copper wire. Some of it had been piled next to the victims' pickup truck.
"They're not dressed like workers and they do not have any of the equipment that they would normally have and the area was secured and they had gone through the area," Burrows said.
The property owner of the former plastic manufacturing warehouse told police that neither man belonged there, and police said they did not appear to be electricians.
Investigators suspect the men intended to steal the expensive copper wire. Police said there have been problems with copper thefts in the area because the price of copper has been so high.
"We're investigating that now. That's what it looks like at this point," Burrows said.
The high-voltage area was locked but police said the two men were able to get inside by pulling open a chain-link fence.
