Dumb Thieves With Saws, Not Guns, To Blame For Internet Blackout

from the by-saw-or-by-gun dept

Fri, Aug 24th 2007 8:04pm — Mike Masnick

Well, well, well. Earlier this week we wrote about a report (the second one we'd ever heard of!) saying that gunfire had damaged a fiber optic cable, causing a bit of an internet slowdown in the northeastern part of the US. Turns out that wasn't exactly accurate -- though the real story isn't necessarily any less bizarre. It appears that the cable was actually cut with a saw, most likely by thieves hoping it was copper that could be sold. Of course, fiber optic cables don't contain copper, so the thieves ended up with something worth a lot less than they expected. But what about the gunshot? Well, it turns out that when crews arrived to fix up the cable, they discovered that the replacement cable had been shot up by gunfire. It's not explained how or why this might have happened, but the folks who store the fiber optic cable might want to come up with a better storage place.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: fiber optics, guns

36 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

freakengine, 24 Aug 2007 @ 8:49pm

The guys who check out and replace fiber...
...probably aren't what you would call forensics "experts". The replacement cable might just have been gnawed on by rats.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Agreed, 24 Aug 2007 @ 8:53pm
  
  Re: The guys who check out and replace fiber...
  How would the telco guys know that a bullet made the cut/break. Unless the cable was thick enough and the bullet actually made a hole, I'm not sure how this is possible.
  
  http://canyoubemymother.com
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - The guy who would be replacing the cable, 25 Aug 2007 @ 9:06pm
    
    Re: Re: The guys who check out and replace fiber..
    There have been multiple times we have repaired fiber and feeder damaged due to gunshots. Knuckleheads shooting at birds on the line. Much more common than you would think!
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - PK, 26 Aug 2007 @ 2:44am
    
    Re: Re: The guys who check out and replace fiber..
    My former job was splicing fiber for a large telecom outfit, and I came across a cable that some strands were broken due to shotgun pellets in the cable. I guess someone was hunting and shot a bird off the line...Who knows!!. But it sure took a while to find where it was broken.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
pointless, 24 Aug 2007 @ 9:11pm

bullet holes
maybe there were bullet holes nearby and shells. what difference does it make
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2007 @ 10:09pm

Duh they knew cause they shot the fiber themselves
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
KingJacob, 24 Aug 2007 @ 10:25pm

What?
So thieves looking for copper cut the cable with a saw and then shot up the replacement cable, tha sounds more like a person trying to turn off the internet than a copper thief.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Ben, 25 Aug 2007 @ 8:09am
  
  Re: What?
  Sounds like that Tom Clancey novel is coming true...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2007 @ 4:56pm
    
    Re: Re: What?
    Which one? I've only read a few...
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2007 @ 12:41am

Maybe they're the ones who shot hole in it... Cable co sabotaged their own network a while back here too heh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
golftango, 25 Aug 2007 @ 3:36am

y2k midwatch at the sprint noc ...
... all hands (and managers) present watching for the slightest anomaly when around 0300ct we lose connection to the southeast quadrant. after the hands nearly get trampled by managers eager to prove they can--by damm--still troubleshoot they wring a hard-fought rfo from the sprint plc center in atlanta: some drunk rednecks in a pickup truck shot down some aerial fiber with a shotgun.

and thus passed y2k into fleeting memory ...

/guy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Malestone7469, 25 Aug 2007 @ 4:01am

I shot 'em up
Me and mah gang was thah to steal 'um copper cables, but we were sore disappointed.
Saw some othah cables lying 'round so decided to hav some fun!
Shot 'em up with the .44 and blasted up with the shotguns, and see them cables ain't made of the dratted thing we came for. I ain't seen so much glass fly out of 'em.
Drat! Drat! and Double Drat!

Could have saved the shots and sold the copper instead....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
AT&T michigan bell cable instalation and repai, 25 Aug 2007 @ 5:21am

cable shot up
listen, anyone can see a cable was shot up. as a life long repairman i have seen squirell chews, saw marks, bullet holes and lightning strikes etc you canT imagine what hits cable. we know damn well what we are looking at! we repair cable for a living!. 25 years now for me. people shoot at cable for no reason it not uncommon. after you have 25 years you can complain we dont know what we are doing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mark, 25 Aug 2007 @ 9:00am
  
  Re: cable shot up
  How common of an occurence would you say this is?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2007 @ 12:29am
  
  Re: cable shot up
  I know a guy who has been driving for twice as long as that, 50 years. The other day he ran off the road and wound up in the ditch. He claimed to have been dodging a bunch of space aliens on the road. He was absolutely sure of it. And he knew what he was talking about, by golly, because he'd been driving for 50 years!
  
  The point is, repairing cables for 25 years doesn't come anywhere near to making you a forensics expert. Hopefully, you are a good repairman, but even that is not guaranteed. Some people do things their whole lives and still don't get it right. For example, how long have you been reading and writing? Longer than than you've repairing cables I'd suspect, and yet you still don't know how to capitalize properly.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - name, 27 Aug 2007 @ 7:17am
    
    Re: Re: cable shot up
    "Longer than than you've repairing cables I'd suspect, and yet you still don't know how to capitalize properly."
    
    "than than" maybe u should get some english lessons as well. when u have no argument about the article why do u choose to point out grammer mistakes? its R-E-T-A-R-D-E-D. Get a life. last time i checked no ones grading this crap, and so what if they are. find someone else to vent ur anger with the world at deutsche bag!
    
    "Peace and Love my fellow beings"
    
    pfft
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 27 Aug 2007 @ 9:44am
      
      Re: Re: Re: cable shot up
      REpair Guy,
      Just how many sock puppets are you going to use anyway?
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mystified, 25 Aug 2007 @ 5:29am

Get a Real Job
What a stupid waste of Techdirt space. This article belongs in "Reuters: Oddly Enough".

"Too much free time"? Mike should be given a lifetime of free time - you're fired!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
raffyster, 25 Aug 2007 @ 8:45am

No redudancy
Scares me to think that a single fiber connection can take down a whole area network. whatever happened to Internet redudancy??? Scary!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2007 @ 8:58am
  
  Re: No redudancy
  Ask Al Gore, he invented it, maybe he should be the one going out and repairing the cable.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2007 @ 9:10am
    
    Re: Re: No redudancy
    right wing asshole!
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2007 @ 9:47am
      
      Re: Re: Re: No redudancy
      Rightwing leftwing there all assholes.....
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sitekeeper, 25 Aug 2007 @ 10:01am

TISP
I am glad I switched to TISP last year.... Now I no longer worry about land lines. Give it a try http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- How many..., 25 Aug 2007 @ 10:20am
  
  Re: TISP
  Installs have you had. This sounds like a great idea! Hey Goblin Juice this ones for you, run with it!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pawh, 25 Aug 2007 @ 6:28pm

Dad Blammitt' Squirrels !
Went over to the communications area of Cleveland and shot hundreds of ground squirrels (sage rats) last weekend. Boy was that a blast. For any of you who have not done this before, you've got to put it on your to-do list.

Between six of us, we probably shot 300 of the little suckers in less than two days. Went through about 6,000 rounds of .22lr. The best part of it is that the ISP's love people to come out and shoot them. There are thousands of the them living in the server farms. SysAdmins hate 'em 'cause they tear up their PC Networks.

Basically, we just rode around in the back of a truck around the vast server farms and shot squirrels all day. Spent all day in 1-2 server farms. Then, that night, we went out spotlighting for jack rabbits. That was fun too, but there weren't too many rabbits out that night.

Anyway, just thought I'd tell you all about the trip. If you ever get the chance to go over to Eastern Oregon to shoot some squirrels, you should do it. You won't be disappointed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2007 @ 2:00am

You're the one to rag the man for capitalization.
Check out your last sentence.

Fucking dipshits always trying to be better than everybody else.
Half the posters are dimwits, and 25 percent are complaining.

If you people don't have anything constructive to say, then maybe you should just STFU.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2007 @ 11:30am
  
  Re:
  If you people don't have anything constructive to say, then maybe you should just STFU.
  
  STFU
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2007 @ 11:42am
  
  Re:
  "Fucking dipshits always trying to be better than everybody else.
  Half the posters are dimwits, and 25 percent are complaining."
  
  Hey repair guy, I recognize your vocabulary. Yeah, you're a real gem alright.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2007 @ 11:46am
  
  Re:
  You're the one to rag the man for capitalization.
  Check out your last sentence.
  You need to learn the difference between a typographical error and grammatical ignorance.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Da Dude, 26 Aug 2007 @ 6:20am

cable
do you all have nothing better to do than to idly ramble on about gunshots, fiberoptic cable, and who did what when and how???? Please, get off your computer, go outside... and get a life for petes sake.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lars, 26 Aug 2007 @ 10:09am

Daarrr...
Ya know,

One of these days we are going to have a real necktie party.

Until we reach a point where there is no need for cables -(prayer to high up on Heaven, "Scottie, Beam me up ! There is no intelligent life !")-there will always be room to discuss the hilarity of the brain dead of this planet as it relates to shooting holes in communications cables.

'nuff said !
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oooooh !, 26 Aug 2007 @ 1:18pm

Food Fight ! Food Fight !
Methinks I smell the beginnings of an honest ta god blog post based flame war !

;)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hyrulio, 26 Aug 2007 @ 6:27pm

Conspiracy Theory.
The RIAA did it! Lots of piracy! In fact, piracy makes up 156% of the internet's total bandwidth!

Cut the cable, people don't have internet, they can't download stuff, the folks at the RIAA get a long weekend! :P
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 27 Aug 2007 @ 3:42am

21, Goody so you know some dipshit who's been driving for 50 yrs. Good for You. You don't need to be a Forensics expert, to know your job inside and out. Thanks for playing though, all's not lost, you've got the Asshole market cornered!!!! Hows that working for You???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sock Pirate, 27 Aug 2007 @ 12:39pm

Driving
while shooting, wires from the back o' the pick-up !

Yahoo !
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tom, 11 Sep 2007 @ 7:16pm

Yes, bullets in the fiber does happen
I work for a cable company and we have had outages that were due to bullets in the fiber. The outage was oddly sporadic and causing the signal to go out to areas in the forward, and then other areas the modem return would cease.

The fiber was OTDR'd and we saw the issue at the certain distance and then go away. We drove out the span and and saw no damage. after just isolating the section and cutting out several hundred feet we found a .38 that had entered the jacket at an angle then traveled inside the armor jacket that surrounds the actual fiber buffer tubes. The bullet had traveled well over a meter down the length of the cable, essentially hiding it. Not as easy to find as bar darts and arrows that get up there as well.

My grammar is yours to destroy as you see fit. >_
[ link to this | view in chronology ]