The Brief<\/p>\n
Copper wire thieves have struck the Oakland Hills three times in a single week, causing repeated internet service disruptions.<\/p>\n
AT&T crews were seen repairing damage at Skyline Boulevard and Keller Avenue after cables were cut and utility poles were toppled.<\/p>\n
AT&T is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for stealing copper cable.<\/p>\n
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.<\/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.<\/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.<\/p>\n
However, neighbors reported a third incident occurred Friday.<\/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.<\/p>\n
The city of Oakland reported that unprecedented wire theft and vandalism are currently impacting traffic signals and streetlights across the city.<\/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.<\/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<\/p>\n
KTVU Interviews and reporting, AT&T, Comcast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Copper wire thieves have struck the Oakland Hills three times in a single week, causing repeated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[34899,120183,120181,5737,143,145,1904,144,407,120182],"class_list":{"0":"post-278605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-att","9":"tag-cable-services","10":"tag-copper-cables","11":"tag-copper-wire","12":"tag-oakland","13":"tag-oakland-headlines","14":"tag-oakland-hills","15":"tag-oakland-news","16":"tag-oakland-police-department","17":"tag-skyline-boulevard"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278605","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=278605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}