Copper Thieves Cause Widespread Internet Power Outage in Southern California

Copper Thieves Cause Widespread Internet Power Outage in Southern California

Last year, I noted that between the escalating price of copper and organized crime, copper theft was becoming a significant issue. Interestingly, one of the hardest hit groups are electric vehicle owners, as charging stations are often a target of metal thieves.

Copper theft has become a major and growing problem across California, with Los Angeles and Ventura County experiencing frequent and increasingly disruptive incidents. Thieves target copper wiring from public infrastructure, utilities, and telecommunications, causing widespread outages, safety hazards, and costly repairs.

This weekend, for example, the metal theft incident led to a widespread internet outage.

An attempted — and unsuccessful — 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.

“This morning, our lines were cut due to vandalism in Van Nuys that also affected our services in other parts of Los Angeles and Ventura,” spokesperson Dennis Johnson said Sunday.
In a Monday update, he added that service was gradually restored — area by area — over the course of Sunday, with repairs wrapping up Monday morning.

Johnson attributed the incident to copper wire thieves — who were looking for copper in a place where there was none.

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 leading into Sunday morning.

Users reported on social media that their internet was out in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday and throughout the day — with some voicing frustration over the disruption occurring on Father’s Day.

Last month, Los Angeles area residents still in possession of landlines had their service interrupted when thieves stole the cables. Meanwhile, a task for was created to focus on metal theft related to earlier incidents nabbed over 80 people.

The repeated damage to the communications systems has already led to millions of dollars in repair costs.

An AT&T spokesperson said the company had seen a recent increase in copper wire theft across South L.A., a neighborhood with almost 300,000 residents, according to the Department of City Planning in 2021. AT&T’s outage website reports multiple landlines down in L.A. due to cable damage, with some missing a scheduled repair date.

“Theft and vandalism of critical communications infrastructure are serious matters that disrupt essential services for our customers, public safety and the community at large. This is a growing problem in the area, and we’re working closely with public safety on our shared interest to combat copper theft in Los Angeles,” AT&T said in a statement. “We understand how frustrating copper theft is to our customers and it’s not an acceptable customer experience. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

In 2024, the L.A. City Council created a task force in partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Bureau of Street Lighting to curb copper wire theft from public utilities. A total of 82 people were arrested, and more than 2,000 pounds of stolen copper wire were recovered.

Prior to the task force, the neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno saw their streetlights stripped of copper wire, leaving multiple blocks in the dark. City politicians estimated the repair costs to exceed $17 million.

California is leading the nation…in copper theft crime.

In response to a surge in copper wire theft and infrastructure vandalism across California, Attorney General Rob Bonta convened a roundtable last week with law enforcement, utility companies, business leaders, educators, and elected officials to address the growing threat, the Attorney General’s Office announced.

The meeting comes as California leads the nation in copper-related crimes, with nearly 1,805 incidents reported between June and December 2024, officials said. This accounts for one-third of all telecom copper thefts nationwide.

Add this “achievement” to the many reasons California Gov. Gavin Newsom hit a milestone in some polling that was recently conducted.

Congratulations @GavinNewsom for being the WORST governor in the US by a MASSIVE margin https://t.co/PyK1jAwZY0 pic.twitter.com/QfUVFp4LfL

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 16, 2025

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