Copper Thieves Are Cutting Down Phone Lines, Resulting In Loss Of Services In Some Dallas Neighborhoods

Dallas police and A T & T are attempting to prevent copper thieves from taking down lines and interrupting phone, cable, and internet services.

In some areas, like Southwest Oak Cliff, the thieves and interruptions have occurred multiple times.

A T & T workers have been all around Southwest Oak Cliff repairing cable lines that thieves have destroyed in order to steal the copper. As the thieves carry out the offenses, they are terminating lifelines for people in the community.

“They’re coming in, and they’re stealing the cable lines to get the copper wire out of the inside of it,” said a police detective.

Whole communities have had cable lines taken out by thieves over and over again.

“Given that the rise in copper prices just went up, that’s causing more crime involving theft,” stated an A T & T representative.

“It takes out the whole neighborhood’s cable, internet, and phone. So, anybody that has landlines, they’ve now lost their ability to call 911. Anybody who works on the internet, using the internet for their cell service or working from home, they no longer have the ability to do that.”

He added that each portion of the cable could be 100 to 200 feet, and thieves are taking two to ten sections each time. Each section takes about $15,000 to fix.

A T &T workers come to do repairs in marked up vehicles and vests containing logos. If anyone else is observed with a ladder or saw, authorities should be contacted.

“We’re trying to work with all of the scrap yards where the metal’s sold to try to start finding people that are coming in with hundreds of pounds of copper wire that doesn’t really add up,” authorities say.