Copper thieves cut phone, Internet service to Atlanta neighborhood
Residents of a northwest Atlanta neighborhood hope to have phone and Internet service fully restored Friday or Saturday, a week after copper thieves knocked out service to the area.
C. Henry Adams, whose mother lives on Linkwood Road in Collier Heights, said at least one resident saw a white bucket truck around 4 a.m. Oct. 5 and assumed it was a utility company working on the lines. But it turned out the men were actually copper thieves, who broke into two trunk lines, knocking out phone and Internet service to as many as 3,000 customers.
“This was a professional effort,” Adams said of the theft. He said AT&T responded that day and that crews have been working daily to fix the problem. But he said Friday morning that residents are frustrated that AT&T has not fixed all the lines a week after the theft occurred. He said crews were working normal shifts when they should be working extended hours.
He said most of the residents affected are elderly people who depend on AT&T not just for phone and Internet, but for such things as alarm system and monitoring service and personal emergency alert service.
AT&T spokesman Lance Skelly said the initial outage was corrected within a couple of days, but that thieves struck again Tuesday night.
“The problem is, this is the second time in a week,” Skelly said. “They cut a huge chunk of cable.”
He said crews were working as much as possible but the task of trying to connect thousands of wires at night would be next to impossible.
“We understand the frustration,” he said. “We regret that this happened but these are issues that are way beyond our control, but then we have to come in and fix it.”
Skelly said AT&T hopes to have all service restored Friday evening, or Saturday at the latest.
He said AT&T would work with affected customers to adjust their bills for the time they were without service.
Skelly said copper thefts are becoming a huge problem for the utility.
“It’s not just confined to that area,” he said. “It’s all over Atlanta and statewide.”
He urged anyone who spots an unmarked bucket truck or sees someone suspicious climbing a utility pole to contact police. He said AT&T will pay a $3,000 reward to anyone who provides a tip that leads to the arrest and conviction of a copper thief, and he said tipsters can remain anonymous.
Skelly said Georgia has cracked down on companies that buy stolen copper, but that thieves are now going out of state, particulary Tennessee and North Carolina, to sell the stolen goods.
Atlanta police said the investigation of the case is continuing.
