Internet, phone service restored in Greene County after copper theft causes outage
Phone and internet services have been restored to 500-plus customers in Greene County who suffered outages after the theft of telecommunications fiber and cable overnight Monday.
Kinetic telecommunications fiber and copper cable had been taken from an area near Kiger Road and Route 88 in Greensboro. The theft had cut off service to 520 residents in Greensboro and Bobtown, said Kinetic representative Victoria Carman. As of Tuesday night, service had been restored to virtually all customers, with technicians bringing the handful of remaining customers back online Thursday, Carman said.
Copper thieves had hit the area before, most recently in December, Carman said.
“Any time copper is stolen and fiber is vandalized by thieves, it can lead to entire communities without internet and/or phone service like we saw here,” she said in an email response Thursday. “It’s not a victimless crime. Many of the consequences from damages can impact critical infrastructure and essential emergency services like E911.”
Copper was priced at $4.62 a pound on the Comex trading market at the close of trading Thursday, up nearly 15% over their position at the start of the year. On Tuesday, President Trump directed the Commerce Department to investigate copper imports as a possible prelude to tariffs.
Other thefts have been reported throughout the area. On Thursday, the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office in West Virginia reported the arrest of three men from West Virginia and Pennsylvania suspected in a series of thefts of telecommunications cables over the past year.
Garrett Weeder, 35, of Gans, Pa.; Jeffrey Howell, 38, of Uniontown, Pa.; and Saviour McDonald, 25, of Morgantown, W.Va., were named in the release.
The sheriff’s office is also attempting to find a fourth suspect, Ronald “Buddy” Boyer, 42. Boyer, originally from Point Marion, has more recently been staying in Morgantown, the sheriff’s office said in a release Thursday. Anyone with information on the crimes or Boyer’s location is asked to call the department at 304-291-7260.
Messages were left with Pennsylvania State Police and the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office seeking if the suspects had any connection with Monday night’s incident in Greensboro.