$20 Copper Theft In Vacant Home Leads To Owner's Death

In Onawa, Iowa, KCCI-TV Channel 8 (Des Moines) reports:

• A $20 copper theft in August led to the death of an Iowa man, and local authorities said ... that they need the public's help to solve the crime. Earl Thelander, 80, died in late August after an explosion in a home he owns outside of Onawa. His son, Doug, said his father was preparing the property for a new renter. In the process, someone raided the inside of the home, police said, stealing wiring and tubing and cutting a gas line into the home. Doug Thelander said his father aired out the gas smell in the house for almost three hours the next day, then plugged in a fan to move the air around. "He said, 'Doug, I didn't smell anything, but that spark there was just a tremendous explosion,'" Thelander said, recalling one of his last conversations with his father. Earl Thelander had second- and third-degree burns over 80 percent of his body. He died in a hospital four days later. "It's tough to watch. It's tough to watch somebody like that just fade away," Doug Thelander said.

For more, see Man Dies After $20 Copper Theft (Onawa Police Seek Informants) (if link expires, try here).

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