APD said thieves are looking for copper wherever they can, but there is no copper in fiber cables to begin with.

AUSTIN, Texas — Copper thieves continue to strike across Central Texas, but are looking for it in the wrong places and causing infrastructure issues that could impact everyone. 

Austin Police Department (APD) say fiber cables are at risk of being damaged, because they say thieves believe there is copper to collect from the cables. All they find is tiny glass fibers that connect Texans to the world and even emergency services. 

And these recent incidents involving the destruction of cables show Spectrum construction supervisor Charlie Barrington that it can be the small things that often create the biggest messes. 

“It just depends on the extent of the damage that was done,” Barrington said. “This particular outage, I wanna say it was probably right around the 20, 24 hour mark on this one.”

He is referring to the Spectrum outage originating in North Austin on March 31. Crews and supervisors, including Barrington, were called in to repair the cables in the overnight hours. The process of splicing the glass fibers is often tedious and time consuming. 

Crews had to repair three-thousand strands of glass fiber. 

“Everybody’s already worked a full day and now you know it’s another full day ahead of us minimum,” Barrington said. “I think that particular one had over 25,000 customers down, and when we get calls like that, it’s um. You know it’s never fun.”

Detective Fernando Chipelo with APD is one of three that investigate copper theft cases in the city. He said thieves are becoming a bigger issue in the region as the value of copper continues to be high. 

“It’s kind of gotten to a point now where the suspects are just trying to cut down whatever they can thinking that there’s some kind of precious metal in the wire, and sometimes there isn’t,” Chipelo said. 

There is also a genuine concern for public safety. 

“It’s very frustrating. I mean, they don’t realize it’s just take the fact that you have people that are out here working on it in some of the worst weather possible. Let’s think about the customers. You have customers out there that are relying on 911 services,” Barrington said. 

Detective Chipelo said thieves are selling copper to metal recycling facilities. But state law requires buyers to keep records on where the copper comes from.

“We’re going to be inspecting them and really harping on the required paperwork,” Chipelo said. 

It is illegal to purchase stolen copper. It is also illegal to have possession of any amount of unauthorized copper. 

Spectrum is offering $25,000 for tips that lead to arrests related to damaging their cables. 

“In addition to APD, we’re also partnering with federal agencies like the FBI. We also are in touch and work with our district attorneys, uh, so we partner with different federal agencies, local law enforcement authorities to make sure that we have awareness to this crime,” Scott Horne, the Spectrum regional field operations vice president, said. 

Barrington and fellow crew members will continue to keep everyone connected.Â