A suspected copper thief trespassing on a military housing construction site near Honolulu International Airport died last night after a shock and a fall from a utility pole.

Witnesses told paramedics that the man fell about 40 feet from a pole near the fenceline after receiving an electrical shock shortly before 9 p.m., said city Emergency Medical Services spokesman Bryan Cheplic.

The man was taken in critical condition to The Queen's Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Cheplic said. The man is believed to be in his 50s, Cheplic said.

Police and a fire company from the Mokulele station responded with EMS personnel at 9 p.m. to an area just mauka of Nimitz Highway near Catlin Drive, where military housing is being built.

Police Sgt. David Yomes said a woman, believed to be a homeless person living under the freeway viaduct, went to a hotel on the makai side of Nimitz to call 911. The woman reportedly said the man was electrocuted while stealing copper. Police were not able to find the woman to get more information.

"We found some copper wiring, not much," Yomes said. He did not confirm any connection between the wiring and man.

Copper theft is a growing problem in Hawai'i and nationally. A series of thefts here of copper wiring, copper plumbing and other copper materials have cost the state Department of Transportation more than $300,000 in just 18 months and left miles of O'ahu freeways in the dark.

Two copper thieves from Leeward O'ahu were electrocuted while trying to steal copper wiring around 1996, Jim Beavers, Hawaiian Electric Co.'s manager of safety/security and facilities, recalled in an interview published last October in The Advertiser.

Last Aug. 8, Beavers said, a man reportedly trying to steal wiring at Beckley Park in Kalihi was badly burned.

"They don't understand the dangers," Beavers said. "Somebody's going to die from this. It's something waiting to happen."

According to a Gannett News Service report last September, seven men in five states died from electrocution in a two-month period while hacking through power lines to steal copper.

Police have been trying to stem copper thefts by trying to catch the thieves and also by targeting recyclers who knowingly buy stolen copper.

On March 11 police arrested a trio of alleged copper thieves who scampered up the rain-slick side of the Pali tunnels to snip copper wiring. They were caught with high-end wire cutters and testing equipment that would let them know whether the wires were live or safe to cut.

Police in late February arrested two employees of Aiea Recycling in a sting operation to clamp down on illegal copper sales. The company shut down March 1.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.