The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative says stolen copper wires led to a power outage for nearly 3,000 of its customers Tuesday.
In a statement, the utility says the vandalism caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to a substation in Lincoln.
Workers had to shut off power to repair the damage.The outage lasted about an hour.
Local police are now investigating the theft.
A spokesman for the co-op says copper has been stolen from that substation before, as recently as last fall.
He says he can't speculate on any connection between the vandalism and the ongoing strike of the co-op's union employees.
All 83 of the co-op's line workers are on strike. They've been replaced by temporary private workers. The rest of the co-op's 200 employees are still at work.
A federal mediator is leading contract negotiations as the work stoppage stretches into its second week.
