"Safety for the public is our number one goal," says Natasha Lacy of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
Hundreds of lights have been disabled along the interstates in Fayette and Scott Counties.
"At this time, we have about 450 lights/luminaries that are out, a lot of those are on the ramps at the interstates for the northern and southern split for Interstate 75 and Interstate 64. We are, of course, having problems with copper wire theft on the interstates," explains Lacy.
So far, more than a half a million dollars in copper wire has been stolen and that's taxpayer money.
"It's probably around, approximately $500,000, but that, could, of course, increase because we have repaired lights and then they have been tampered with and the wire has been stolen after the repair work has been done. So, we're repeating replacement costs," comments Lacy.
That's why the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is asking the public for help.
"We think that the tampering, the copper wire theft is going on in the wee hours of the morning, when, of course, it's dark. We would like assistance from motorists that if they do see suspicious activity, to report it," says Lacy.
And the KYTC is taking other steps to try to stop this from happening again.
"We are putting some measures in place, surveillance cameras, an alarm system that will be helping to monitor the activity on the interstates," explains Lacy.
To report suspicious activity, call police or the KYTC at 502-564-2080.
