{"id":188074,"date":"2025-06-16T04:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T04:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/188074\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T04:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T04:25:09","slug":"spectrum-says-would-be-copper-thieves-behind-widespread-outage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/188074\/","title":{"rendered":"Spectrum says would-be copper thieves behind widespread outage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An attempted \u2014 and unsuccessful \u2014 copper theft in Van Nuys caused a widespread internet outage Sunday affecting swaths of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, a Spectrum spokesman confirmed to The Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning, our lines were cut due to vandalism in Van Nuys that also affected our services in other parts of Los Angeles and Ventura,\u201d said spokesperson Dennis Johnson. In an update on the company\u2019s progress in restoring service, Johnson said late Sunday afternoon that \u201ctechnicians restored services in Ventura this morning, and services continue to be restored this afternoon in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident Johnson attributed the incident to copper wire thieves \u2014 who were looking for copper in a place where there was none.<\/p>\n

The company said that one or more individuals cut multiple fiber lines that were on the poles, apparently climbing trees to gain access. The lines were cut sometime after midnight.<\/p>\n

Users reported on social media that their internet was out in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday and throughout the day \u2014 with some voicing frustration over the disruption occurring on Father\u2019s Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On X, user @strappyheels wanted to know: \u201cWill customers get credit<\/a> on their bill since the outage has been ongoing since 2am and there is no ETA?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another apparent customer, @5cottFive <\/a> expressed disbelief on social media at Spectrum\u2019s posted explanation citing \u201ca criminal act of vandalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way a single act of vandalism took out regional internet for all of Ventura and Los Angles counties,\u201d the user posted. \u201cThis is a serious outage spanning from Ventura, Ojai, Simi, The Valley, and apparently all the way down to Anaheim.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the outage was not universal or as long-lasting for some. At 4:57 p.m., @Ladybugzz21<\/a> posted that her internet in the San Fernando Valley was working.<\/p>\n

Work to restore some areas was continuing into the evening, the company stated.<\/p>\n

The company has had to make \u201cthousands\u201d of fiber splices to repair the lines, a process that is time consuming, even with the help of extra crews that were called in, a company statement said: \u201cThe fibers need to be spliced in the lines to restore services.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its statement, Spectrum said that the severing of wires has become \u201can issue affecting the entire telecommunications industry, not just Spectrum, largely due to the increase in the price of precious metals. These acts of vandalism are not only a crime, but also affect our customers, local businesses and potentially emergency services.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement noted: \u201cSpectrum\u2019s fiber lines do not include any copper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company said it was working with the Los Angeles Police Department in offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest: \u201cAnyone with information on this act of vandalism can contact Spectrum at (833) 404-TIPS or 8477 or reach out to local law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attempted \u2014 and unsuccessful \u2014 copper theft in Van Nuys caused a widespread internet outage Sunday affecting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3161],"tags":[1322,77191,77190,21329,77192,3082,37115,9986,34470,14835,41850,23065,53,16,15,1321,48868,77189,77188],"class_list":{"0":"post-188074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-company","9":"tag-copper-theft","10":"tag-criminal-act","11":"tag-customer","12":"tag-dennis-johnson","13":"tag-internet","14":"tag-internet-outage","15":"tag-line","16":"tag-los-angeles-times","17":"tag-service","18":"tag-social-medium","19":"tag-spectrum","20":"tag-technology","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-user","24":"tag-vandalism","25":"tag-ventura-county","26":"tag-widespread-outage"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114691147391844838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}