Brazen thieves left thousands of Telus Internet and cable customers without service for close to 20 hours in Delta Tuesday after a theft of close to 200 metres of copper.
According to Telus in the early hours of Tuesday morning, they were alerted to a cable theft in the Ladner/Tillbury area, at the dyke between the 6200 block of River Road and Deas Island Park.
“We immediately sent out network technicians to investigate the damage, which was severe,” said Telus spokesperson Liz Sauvé. “Based on witness accounts, it appears there were multiple thieves involved and they brought in large equipment to carry out the theft. We’re told they were using flashlight signals at several locations, and cut several supporting strands that held up our copper and fibre cables to bring them down, and then used a Bobcat to carry large portions of this extremely heavy copper back and forth to a waiting vehicle. In total, they stole about 200 metres of copper.”
Sauvé said the damage impacted service for about 350 Internet customers, 2,400 residential and business phone customers, and cut off service to a local cell tower.
“While we have overlapping cell coverage in the area preventing customers from being fully cut off, we can see that service was degraded, so it’s possible some customers experienced slower wireless service,” she said. “Our team quickly assessed the severe damage and by about 6 a.m. we had brought in large specialized equipment and many highly-skilled cable repair technicians to repair the damage. The repairs involved re-securing the damaged telephone poles as the thieves cut the support strands, and then removing the damaged cables and replacing it with new copper and fibre. The location added a layer of complexity to an already difficult repair as we required access to a locked trail and were dealing with a single-lane access road that we had to bring multiple large vehicles through.”
Service was fully restored to all customers by 8 p.m. Wednesday evening.
“Given the extensive damage and specialized equipment required to complete this repair, a repair time of about 18 hours is tremendous,” Sauvé added. “It’s really important that anyone who notices suspicious activity around telephone or hydro poles, or manholes, to immediately call police. This increases the chances that these thieves can be caught in the act, and hopefully prevents these serious disruptions to our customers.”
