Knocking out electrical power

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NINJAHAMMER
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Knocking out electrical power

Post by NINJAHAMMER » Sun Mar 26, 2017 5:25 am

Thought I would brain storm and pick your brains for ideas on knocking out a home or business electrical power. Just a quick disclaimer here . . . I'm not an electrician , haven't tried these ideas and electricity can shock, burn or kill you. That being said, I'm interested in methods, tools and tactics for cutting the power of a home, business, room, city etc. Now I know that cutting the power to a building will not disable the alarm system as most alarm systems have a battery backup that will keep the alarm functioning for hours or days and the act of cutting the power may cause the security system to send an alarm all by itself. However, cutting the electricity can cause lighting to go out, elevators to stop, key card doors to unlock for emergency egress, and so on. I've researched some power company catalogs that have tools for cutting power lines and sometimes the power line can be accessed if you can gain access to the roof of the building in question - do be careful of the line and where it will hang, swing after cutting for it may touch, land on your ladder, car, slow moving partner , home owner's dog. But cutting power lines leaves a trace - soooooo, perhaps a broken tree branch tossed onto the wire (please don't keep hold of the branch as it touches the wire). Or, put a metal tent peg into the ground, wrap a copper wire / carbon fiber wire to the tent peg and then throw, propel (arrow, crossbow, etc) the wire over the powerline so that the copper / carbon wire makes contact with the overhead power line (perhaps standing to close to the tent peg / copper wire is a poor idea). The U.S. military used carbon fiber chafe dropped from planes to take out Bosnian power stations. I have found carbon fiber wire for sale on the net and it may be easier to toss than a copper wire. Shooting transformers is another option but can be noisey unless you have a powerful air gun or crossbow. Now if you are in a room and want it to go black, you can plug in a electrical cord breaker tester ( an electrical cord is cut and the wires are wired together - the plug is then inserted into an outlet which causes a short circuit). You can also attack the electrical meter to stop power to the building but I'm not sure how this is done. Lastly, and this is a little James Bond, but how about a cheap drone with a hanging piece of copper wire flown so that the wire makes contact with the power line and other lines or with some grounding contact point (the ground, the building, etc) Any thoughts Night Oppers?

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Xanatos
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Re: Knocking out electrical power

Post by Xanatos » Sun Mar 26, 2017 11:36 am

I've previously knocked out the power to a church and a parking complex by finding the breaker box and just flipping the off switch. It was easier for the church because the box was on the exterior, at ground level and wasn't padlocked in any way, but the parking structure's one was on one of the upper levels on the interior of the complex. Luckily I managed to leap onto the roof from a neighbouring building and infiltrate from above. Knocking out the power plunged the whole complex into darkness, allowing me to move with ease, and as for the church it disabled the automatic motion-sensing lights on the outside as well as any unwanted shenanigans inside.

Haven't tried this on larger buildings, but on the subject of shooting transformers from afar you might consider the aptly named .300 Blackout round - it's subsonic, which lends itself beautifully to being suppressed, with similar ballistics to the 7.62x39mm. I've seen footage of suppressed ARs in .300 Blackout and the noisiest part was the sound of the bolt cycling.
Of course this is total overkill for any standard op, but I just thought it funny there's a round called "Blackout" that seems tailored for this purpose. :D
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