i am looking for advice on this wire type and what to do

**mike1** · 02-24-2018, 03:05 PM

its a white sheath kinda like romex but its about around like its hard insulation kinda the strands are not insulated except for the outer insulation and there are 18 strands one end is not connected and the other is in the ground i touched the end not electric i know dont have to tell me it was stupid so dont knock me for that just anser my questions please. its by a power pole but there is no wires going up the pole. who do i call? i was thinking about cutting it but then that im sure is illegal and i dont do that. um any ideas what it is and who i call? if i stand there and wait for them to come how likely is it that they would give me the wire if i asked? im sorry im i dont know how big each wire is its its kinda small. the wire has been chewed up maybe a snowplow uncovered it? if i stand out there and wait for them will they think i did it if i tell them im a scrapper and pick up things on the road? i really did just think someone threw wire out people dump all kinds of things along the road that i pick up. i was going to call nipsco but i was not sure if thats there area or not.

**bwillapierre** · 02-24-2018, 03:26 PM

It may be a ground cable. I do not know much about such though from what you posted(and without an image to go by)my guess is its a cable that is used by electricians to ground future or in this case previous construction site electrical systems. Purely speculation of course. Across the street from my home I watched as a fitness place was built. Daily I witnessed the construction process from start to operation. While the foundation was being, after concrete was poured, a worker aproached me and asked if I would walk over every hour an a half & spray down the concrete.(This was last summer & it was in the triple digits often) While I was spraying I noticed a big round cable sticking out of the ground. It appeared to have been uprooted when Machinery had broken the ground in order to prepare for building. At least that is what I assumed at the time. Although I was tempted to dig it out and find the end of it which was buried, I left it alone in hopes that perhaps I could talk one of the workers out of it the following day if it was to be tossed in the garbage bin. I approached one of the workers the next morning and asked but we have plans that old cable. He replied that it was a future ground for the building. And as you can guess, it stayed where it was. So from what I gather from your post, it sounds similar to my experience. Although I could be off by a long shot.

**hills** · 02-24-2018, 07:25 PM

Just walk away and forget about it.

Best guess is that the loose end went up the utility pole and attached to something up there. The other end might be feeding to an underground service that goes to a building. Could possibly be a ground wire of some kind as well.

Anyway ... cutting it off could cause them some real problems if they need to re-attach it someday. Don't do that. Messing with their stuff is illegal and could get you in trouble with the police.

**mike1** · 02-27-2018, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by hills

Just walk away and forget about it.

Best guess is that the loose end went up the utility pole and attached to something up there. The other end might be feeding to an underground service that goes to a building. Could possibly be a ground wire of some kind as well.

Anyway ... cutting it off could cause them some real problems if they need to re-attach it someday. Don't do that. Messing with their stuff is illegal and could get you in trouble with the police.

yes i know that thats why i was going to call someone to see if they were going to repair it or just cut it off themseleves anyway i will post something when i call someone so at least they know its down seems to me that it might be attached to a ground spike thing for lightning i bet a snowplow took it down or something. if they do manage to give it to me i will post a pick of it and maybe they can at least tell me what it is no harm in asking shuold be interesting. who knows maybe they will give me more stuff or be a contact for wires cant hurt to ask that is how we get our stuff after all without people to ask we would have no scap to sell lol.

**mike1** · 02-27-2018, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by bwillapierre

It may be a ground cable. I do not know much about such though from what you posted(and without an image to go by)my guess is its a cable that is used by electricians to ground future or in this case previous construction site electrical systems. Purely speculation of course. Across the street from my home I watched as a fitness place was built. Daily I witnessed the construction process from start to operation. While the foundation was being, after concrete was poured, a worker aproached me and asked if I would walk over every hour an a half & spray down the concrete.(This was last summer & it was in the triple digits often) While I was spraying I noticed a big round cable sticking out of the ground. It appeared to have been uprooted when Machinery had broken the ground in order to prepare for building. At least that is what I assumed at the time. Although I was tempted to dig it out and find the end of it which was buried, I left it alone in hopes that perhaps I could talk one of the workers out of it the following day if it was to be tossed in the garbage bin. I approached one of the workers the next morning and asked but we have plans that old cable. He replied that it was a future ground for the building. And as you can guess, it stayed where it was. So from what I gather from your post, it sounds similar to my experience. Although I could be off by a long shot.

i would hope when i call someone that they would just repair it with a different wire i would think reataching something like that with exposed wires and messed up sheath could start a fire and such i will post a pic if i mange to get it from them so you can see if it was what you saw or similar. thanks for the help on this.