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Thieves Steal Half-Mile of Copper, Kill Landline Service for Hundreds

by Warren Riddle on November 1, 2009 at 02:29 PM

A gang of what must have been highly trained, professional thieves, or just a crew of unruly roustabouts, reportedly stole a half-mile length of underground copper tubing in Alfriston, England. According to the BBC, the removal of the cable early Wednesday morning resulted in the loss of landline phone service for 800 local residents and businesses.

Officials believe that the perps dressed in what appeared to be road-crew work uniforms, accessed the cable through manholes, and then pulled up the heavy and "extremely dangerous" live cable using a vehicle of some sort. Actual workers replaced the cable and restored phone service by Thursday night at an estimated cost of almost $75,000.

Officials with phone provider British Telecom said they offered to divert calls to people's mobiles, but did not address how many actually took them up on the offer. There has also been no word from the people affected, which poses the philosophical question, "If a gang yanks up a long, heavy copper cable with a car, but no one uses landlines anymore, do the thieves make a sound?" Or, will anyone even notice? [From: The BBC]

Tags: british telecom, BritishTelecom, copper cabling, copper tubing, CopperCabling, CopperTubing, landline phones, LandlinePhones, top

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