![\"Copper](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/zkdcyyp8g2xtur8j.jpg\")
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OAKLAND, Calif. – The city of Oakland said copper wire thieves are creating serious public safety concerns across the city, affecting traffic signals and cable services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oakland’s electrical crews are struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n
Power troubles <\/p>\n
Local perspective:<\/p>\n
In the Oakland hills, residents are expressing growing frustration after a string of copper thefts left the neighborhood without internet connectivity for much of the past week.<\/p>\n
The damage, centered at the corner of Skyline Boulevard and Keller Avenue, is where utility poles were knocked down over a walking trail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ron Cordell, a neighbor, said he witnessed a large bundle of cable on the ground that had been severed, with copper wiring visibly exposed.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s very disruptive when we lose that kind of connectivity,” Cordell said. “We have things to do, you know?”<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
An AT&T spokesperson confirmed that fiber and copper cables were cut twice last week, noting that those specific incidents were resolved within hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, neighbors reported a third incident occurred Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One anonymous neighbor stated that this marks the fifth time the area has been targeted since February.<\/p>\n
Widespread issue <\/p>\n
Big picture view:<\/p>\n
The issue extends beyond the hills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The city of Oakland reported that unprecedented wire theft and vandalism are currently impacting traffic signals and streetlights across the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additionally, Xfinity reported more than 2,000 outages in the downtown area on Monday following damage to fiber lines.<\/p>\n
Despite the rain, crews worked Monday to restore services to the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
AT&T officials stated they are coordinating with the Oakland Police Department to address the thefts.<\/p>\n
What’s next:<\/p>\n
AT&T is currently offering a $20,000 reward in California for information leading to the arrest and conviction of copper cable thieves, or anyone involved in the sale or purchase of stolen copper.<\/p>\n
Requests for comment from the city of Oakland and the Oakland Police Department were not returned.<\/p>\n
While Comcast reported services were restored by 5:30 p.m., AT&T did not provide a timeline for fixing the damage in the hills.<\/p>\n
The Source: KTVU Interviews and reporting, AT&T, Comcast<\/p>\n
Oakland<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. – The city of Oakland said copper wire thieves are creating serious public safety concerns across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,1184,2042,100,143,145,144,1181],"class_list":["post-277786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-ca","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}