2 charged with cutting 2,000 fiber optic cables; 40,000 lose internet service

Connecticut police have charged two people with cutting more than 2,000 fiber optic cables, leaving over 40,000 homes and businesses without internet service in the southwestern part of the state.

Norwalk police said they arrested Asheville, North Carolina, residents Jillian Persons and Austin Geddings on Saturday during a surveillance operation. Both were charged with larceny and criminal mischief crimes, as well as interfering with police. Persons also was accused of giving a false statement to police.

Were they looking for copper?
I don’t think you’re going to find much copper in fiber-optic cables.

Fiber optic cables are cut and stolen all the time by attempted copper thieves. As you point out, it is inane.

It depends on if they fiber optic cables cut were servicing the nearby cell towers.

I know, right? Terrible reporting. What did they do, go house to house 2,000 times? I don't think so.

Trying to explain that both cables were passing digital packets fell on deaf ears. The coax cables were thick, they were heavy, and they had copper cores, of course the bass frequencies were better with coax!

I understand. I was invited to photograph a wedding when digital cameras were new. I went there with a 10x zoom camera smaller than a postcard and a laptop—about $30K worth of hardware and software that all fit in a small backpack. However, the stepmother of the groom had brought a big black SLR camera with a big black case and several lenses in cases hung around her neck, and bulled her way uninvited in front of me at every shot or pose I arranged with the extended family or guests. The guests thought it was a joke that I was the photographer being paid by the aunt of the bride, and just turned away and looked at her lens. Her camera looked so professional! And its shutter made that official rasp-click! But when her pix were developed, the focus and detail simply could not compare. Nor could she zoom, crop, color-correct or retouch as I was able to in digital. Oh, well.

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