Los Angeles residents are panicking over copper wire thieves knocking out their phone service and leaving them with the bill.
Over the last few months, Hacienda Heights neighbors have lost most of their landline services after thieves have been tampering with utility poles and other parts of the city infrastructure.
Seventy-nine-year-old Michael Weiner told the Los Angeles Times that he’s still been receiving bills from his phone company, Frontier Communications, despite not being able to get a dial tone for six months. Moreover, he and his neighbors haven’t been receiving updates on repairs.
“No one contacted us to let us know. I had wasted so many hours trying to contact them,” Weiner said. “We live in a kind of a fire zone, so we’re always concerned about emergencies. We’re senior citizens. If there’s a health emergency between my wife and myself, it could be a problem if we can’t make a phone call.”
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Frontier Communications reported restoring some phone services, though Frontier’s vice president of external affairs Doug McAllister told the neighborhood last month that thieves have been plaguing their repairs.
“We’ve had so much cable theft we’re running out of copper,” McAllister said. “What happens is when we get it shipped to us, we put it up, we turn our backs and it’s gone again.”
The company is offering a $5,000 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to capturing the thieves. Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis is also offering a $20,000 reward.
“I am committed to continue supporting our Sheriff’s Department of its effort to solve these crimes,” Solis said in a statement.
Other residents are still frustrated with Frontier taking too long to address the problem and many still not having service. 65-year-old resident Diana Arnold told the Los Angeles Times that she and her family have now switched services.
“It’s not just a landline, it’s a lifeline,” Arnold explained.
According to the Los Angeles Times, copper metal can garner up to $4 per pound and has been a hot commodity among thieves.
Recent thefts also caused Glen A. Wilson High School to temporarily cancel in-person classes after the power was cut off last month.
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“The copper wire theft shut down Wilson High School’s electrical, computers, and phone systems. Copper wire thieves are preying on schools and stealing thousands of dollars of valuable material,” Assistant Superintendent John Lovato of the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District said. “This theft is severely impacting student learning and programs.”
Los Angeles isn’t the only city struggling with copper thieves. In Oakland, city officials removed traffic lights at a busy intersection after criminals tampered with the electricity in the system.
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