A Renton man faces 10 charges after being accused of stealing thousands of dollars of copper from Lumen, cutting Comcast wires repeatedly, stealing a car and unlawfully possessing a firearm.
On June 18, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Connor Jon Lacktorin, 32, of Renton, with four counts of first-degree malicious mischief, two counts of second-degree theft, one count of second-degree identity theft, one count of first-degree trafficking in stolen property, one count of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, and one count of first-degree taking a motor vehicle without permission.
According to charging documents, these charges stem from incidents between Oct. 6, 2024, and Dec. 7, 2024, where Comcast fiber optics lines were cut, and Lumen reported thousands of dollars in copper wire stolen. The suspect is accused of utilizing the same Toyota 4Runner stolen out of Kent during the commission of each crime, and when he was arrested, about 700 pounds of wire were found inside it, according to documents.
According to King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Douglas Wagoner, Lacktorin pleaded guilty and his latest court hearing was a pre-trial hearing Aug. 5.
According to the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention jail lookup portal at 10:23 p.m. June 24, Lacktorin was arrested and booked into the Maleng Regional Justice Center. He remains there on a $35,000 bail.
Details of the incident
According to charging documents, the incidents began on Oct. 6, 2024, when at about 3:39 a.m., Comcast fiber optic wires were cut, but not stolen, at the northwest corner of the intersection at 124th Avenue SE and Coal Creek Parkway in Bellevue. Lumen reported that at the same location that morning, an estimated $2,567 worth of wire was stolen, which would cost over $7,500 to repair, not counting permitting and traffic control costs.
The Comcast wires that were cut would cost over $10,000 to repair and 15,000 customers’ service was affected. These costs did not count permitting and traffic control, documents state.
According to documents, on Oct. 15, 2024, and Nov. 9, 2024, at the same locations, cut wires and wire thefts were reported again. During the Nov. 9 incident, a camera caught a black Toyota 4Runner arriving at the scene of the alleged theft and a white male was captured on video walking toward the wires with a bolt cutter.
Documents state that at about 5 a.m. Dec. 7, 2024, in the 13000 block of 160th Avenue SE in Renton, there was an outage reported, and when a technician arrived, he saw a black Toyota 4Runner. The technician recorded the license plate of the Toyota 4Runner and that license plate was later linked to Lacktorin. During that incident, Comcast’s wires only sustained about $250 of damage, but Lumen lost about $2,246 in copper wire and repairs would cost about $12,189.
Documents state that officers then spoke with a past employer of Locktorin who said that he recognized the Toyota 4Runner in the video taken at the scene of the incidents as belonging to Lockotrin. The past employer said that he had to fire Lacktorin because he caught Lacktorin stealing from him.
According to documents, Locktorin would then be arrested on Jan. 19 for being suspected of stealing from a Home Depot in Bellevue. During that incident, the Toyota 4Runner bearing the license plate that the technician reported was found in Lacktorin’s possession. Additionally linking Lacktorin to the crime, a phone registered to Lacktorin was found to have been in the area of the Dec. 7, 2024, Renton wire theft, documents state.
Inside the Toyota 4Runner, officers found about 700 pounds of cut wires and receipts from selling wire. Documents state that the wire was worth about $3,000 to $5,000. Additionally, a firearm was found in his vehicle, which he was not allowed to possess due to being a felon, documents state.
When arrested, Lacktorin allegedly said that he was addicted to fentanyl and methamphetamine. Regarding the wire that was found, documents state that Lacktorin said that he got scrap wire because he was an electrician, and that he would ask permission to take downed wire when he found it. Documents state that people associated with Lacktorin said that he was not an electrician and that he needed to go to jail to get clean from substances.
