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FILE: The view toward downtown Oakland from Piedmont, Calif.<\/p>\n
yhelfman\/Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p>\n
Copper theft, a persistent problem across the Bay Area that has\u00a0disrupted 911 service<\/a> and closed a DMV office<\/a>, is now knocking out internet service in Oakland, officials say.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since the start of the year, thieves have been targeting copper cables used for telecommunications in the Oakland Hills, specifically on a roughly 8-mile stretch of Skyline Boulevard from Evergreen Avenue to the northeastern edge of Knowland Park, according to the Oakland Police Department. OPD did not detail exactly how many instances of copper theft occurred in recent months but said there have been multiple reports going back to late January.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n AT&T spokesperson Chris Collins\u00a0confirmed to SFGATE that an outage on Tuesday was caused by copper wire theft. The company also reported back-to-back outages, on April 15 and 16, he added.<\/p>\n In all three instances, thieves cut through multiple sections of fiber and copper cable at the corner of Skyline Boulevard and Keller Avenue, triggering an outage that lasted roughly five hours, he said. AT&T said it is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the copper theft.\u00a0<\/p>\n A recent blog post from<\/a>\u00a0AT&T\u00a0global security lead investigator Rahdeese Alcutt\u00a0said organized copper theft is happening \u201cmore frequently and on a much larger scale.\u201d In 2025, AT&T reported more than 10,400 copper theft incidents throughout the country, with an average of 200 per week, Alcutt wrote.<\/p>\n Lois Gaudet, a resident in the Oakland Hills, told SFGATE the AT&T outages are also a recurring issue in her neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe more wireless you are, the worse it was! Almost as bad as losing power,\u201d Gaudet said in a Nextdoor message. \u201cI have solar with a battery to avoid that, now I must reactivate my [internet] system to keep internet and wifi.\u201d<\/p>\n Gaudet called the outages \u201cvery disruptive\u201d because it prevents her from using her printers, TVs, doorbell cameras and thermostat, for example.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe loss of wifi was horrible. I lost my security cameras, and many other critical household devices,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The problem extends across Oakland beyond just AT&T customers.\u00a0Damage to fiber lines also disrupted Xfinity service while knocking out streetlights and traffic signals across the city,\u00a0KTVU-TV reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The outage hit customers in the downtown Oakland area on Monday, after fiber lines were \u201cdamaged by vandalism,\u201d Julianne Campbell, a spokesperson for Comcast, the parent company of Xfinity, told SFGATE.\u00a0<\/p>\n The internet service was cut off for at least 2,000 customers, KTVU-TV reported, including this SFGATE reporter. According to a text message from Xfinity, the outage lasted from approximately 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n Copper theft has been a pressing issue in Oakland for years, with the valuable metal worth $6.19 per pound as of Wednesday afternoon<\/a>, the highest price since January. Beyond disruptions to internet service, damage to copper wires caused a DMV office near the Oakland Coliseum to shut down temporarily last year, and in 2024, thieves cut down lampposts<\/a> around Lake\u00a0Merritt, stripping them for copper.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The theft is a statewide problem<\/a>, with thieves targeting some essential services like the Bay Area\u2019s Caltrain, when a man was caught removing copper cables from the train tracks<\/a> in South San Francisco. In San Jose, vandals stole $10,000 worth<\/a> of copper wire from the Valley Transportation Authority\u00a0station in 2024. And in Fresno,<\/a> copper was stolen in recent years from farms across the county.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n