STOCKTON, Calif. — Law enforcement officials in San Joaquin County are hoping to put a dent in the region's surging rate of copper wire thefts through a new grant from AT&T.
The telecommunications company presented the $40,000 grant to the nonprofit San Joaquin County Sheriff Foundation, Thursday.
"This investment in San Joaquin County will further our commitment to reduce copper theft and the outages associated with them," said Brandon Baranco, area manager for AT&T. "We look forward to our continued work together to ensure the residents of San Joaquin County have fast reliable connectivity so they can conduct their business and connect with their loved ones."
Public officials say thieves frequently target the copper wire inside AT&T fiber lines. Damage to fiber lines can cause telephones to be unable to accept or make calls, 911 call centers to go offline and cell service outages for thousands of people.
San Joaquin County Supervisor Steve Ding said in April the county leads the nation in copper wire theft.
At the time, the county and AT&T partnered to offer a $5,000 reward for information on copper theft and sales. The Sheriff's Office also announced increased enforcement to catch copper wire thieves.
"They fix the phone lines, then (thieves) come out again, take the copper wire... and it's just a cycle, just an ongoing cycle," said Andrew Lucchetti, whose family owns local produce store The Fruit Bowl where the grant announcement was made. "It was a hardship for everybody."
According to Lucchetti, his family's 76-year-old store on Waterloo Road has dealt with several days of no access to telephones in the past year after thieves damaged miles of fiber cables nearby while trying to steal copper wire.
"It started affecting us last year, right before Thanksgiving, which is a busy time for pies so we had no phones and the majority of people call in their orders," said Lucchetti. "We had a lot of people frustrated so they went elsewhere for their pies and affected our business, so until the phones are up and running again, we really couldn't do anything about it."
Now with the new grant, Lucchetti is hoping for change.
"Everything helps and it's great that AT&T was able to come up with a grant to help get this resolved," said Lucchetti. "The ability to put more cameras out and find a technology that can help prevent these steps is advantageous for the sheriff's department so that we can get these people who are committing these crimes apprehended."
The Sheriff's Office said it identified new technologies to help prevent copper thefts and hold thieves accountable, but didn't want to disclose specifics so thieves don't find out. The Sheriff's Foundation plans to purchase the technology and then donate it to the Sheriff's Office.
The Sheriff's Office says it's arrested 27 people in connection with copper thefts from fiber optic cables so far this year. In one of the cases, San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said the thief was sentenced to 32 months in state prison and ordered to pay thousands of dollars in restitution.
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