Spectrum offers $25,000 reward for communication line vandalism in East Dallas

Spectrum communication line vandalism in East Dallas

Spectrum is offering a reward of up to $25-thousand dollars after someone vandalized some of their communication lines in East Dallas on Saturday.

Spectrum is offering a reward of up to $25,000 dollars after someone vandalized some of their communication lines in East Dallas on Saturday.

Spectrum did not disclose how many East Dallas customers were impacted by the outage on Saturday.

We do know it knocked out a combination of services, including the internet and cable.

Residents and business owners were knocked offline for hours, and it's a crime that's happening statewide.

Spectrum says the act of vandalism caused a "significant outage that lasted several hours."

The communications giant says someone intentionally cut multiple "fiber optic lines" near their facility located off Chenault Street.

What they're saying:

Spectrum and criminologist at Tarleton State University, Dr. Alex Del Carmen suspects the vandals are often looking for copper to sell for cash.

"It's what we call a crime of opportunity. The idea is that you have a chance to make some money illegally, and the criminal is going to take full advantage of that and do it, right?" said Del Carmen. "The fact is that, now, the price of copper is going way up. And so, by virtue of that, they have now identified the opportunity to sell it illegally while they obtain it at absolutely no cost to them." 

Dig deeper:

Spectrum says their fiber optic lines do not contain any copper, and they aren't the only ones being targeted.

On Friday, Houston-area residents serviced by Xfinity and Comcast were also knocked offline for several hours after vandals cut the company's communication lines.

The company said the widespread outage was due to "several back-to-back acts of suspected vandalism."

What's next:

In Dallas, Spectrum is now offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest.

Spectrum says it's working with Dallas police to see if crime may have been caught on area surveillance cameras.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Dallas Police Department.