GoKawiilEdgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR Verizon will give away $25,000 to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest of vandals who damaged the carrier’s network infrastructure.
This follows widespread incidents of vandalism and theft in the recent past, which led to a service outage earlier this week.
More than half of the reported incidents come from California and Texas, according to recent data.
Earlier this week, Verizon confirmed that vandalism of fiber cables caused widespread disruptions to mobile and internet services across parts of Southern California and Los Angeles. While the carrier said at the time that law enforcement was brought in to investigate these incidents, it is now seeking the community’s help to identify the vandals.
In a blog post, Verizon says it will offer a $25,000 reward to people who provide information about the vandals, provided it leads to an arrest and conviction. As the carrier points out, such disruptions can lead to devastating outcomes for sectors that rely on continuous access to mobile/internet services, such as healthcare and emergency response services.
According to recently published data from the NCTA, California lost $252.6 million due to vandalism and theft, with 6,297 cases statewide last year, including 1,131 in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, over 50% of all the reported incidents came from California and Texas. Theft and vandalism of mobile services infrastructure can affect flight systems, emergency services, police communications, and 911 systems, among other key segments, according to the data.
“These are criminal acts, affecting people’s safety and are putting lives at risk. We are actively investigating several recent incidents and are pursuing all avenues to assist law enforcement in finding and convicting the perpetrators of these acts,” Vandana Venkatesh, chief legal officer at Verizon, said.
The motives for damaging or stealing fiber cables can vary, with data showing that some thieves mistakenly believe fiber cables contain copper, which remains a valuable metal. While older network infrastructure may still contain copper, newer fiber cable-based networks don’t. The report further points to the ease of selling stolen material to scrap metal dealers as a contributing factor in cases of cable theft and vandalism.
For people who have witnessed someone damaging network infrastructure, Verizon recommends first calling 911 to notify the authorities and then contacting the company’s security department at 1-800-997-3287. If the information you provide leads to an arrest and conviction, you should be able to claim that $25,000 bounty.
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