Did you find yourself without internet service over the weekend? Tens of thousands of people in Ventura County found themselves in that position because of some would-be thieves.
Someone cut a number of Spectrum’s fiber-optic lines in Van Nuys early Sunday morning. It disrupted internet service in parts of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties.
Spectrum officials believe the thieves were after copper wire, which can be sold for thousands of dollars. But, Spectrum doesn’t use copper wire. The thieves climbed telephone poles to cut the cables. After realizing there was no copper wire in the cables, the thieves left without taking anything.
Fixing the fiber-optic lines was a complex process, requiring thousands of splices.
Service was restored in Ventura County Sunday morning, but it didn’t happen in parts of the San Fernando Valley until late Sunday night. Spectrum is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for the arrest of the would-be thieves. There's a hotline set up for tip calls. It's 833-404-TIPS (8477).
Spectrum officials say people impacted by the outage will be credited for a day of service on their next bill.
