AT&T says it has logged more than 10,400 incidents of wire theft. It is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to prosecutions.
Copper has doubled in price over the past year, driven largely by the hardware needed to build and power AI data centers. Thieves are following the money. AT&T says the current spike mirrors earlier cycles, when local theft rose and fell with the value of industrial metals.
The haul itself is small. Stripped copper may fetch a few hundred dollars at a recycling center, while the outage and emergency repair that follow often run into the tens of thousands of dollars per incident.
Telecom networks under attack
The problem predates the AI rush. At a summit in Irving, Texas, in November 2024, industry groups NCTA, NTCA, CTIA and USTelecom presented a joint study counting 3,929 incidents of theft and vandalism between June and August of that year. Service went down for more than 325,000 customers. California and Texas together accounted for 52% of the incidents.
Targets ranged from 5G small cells and wireless towers to fiber-optic lines and old landline telephones. In Denver, a syndicate stripped a wireless carrier’s small cell sites between June 2022 and February 2023 and caused $800,000 in damage. Thieves in Los Angeles set off extended outages that hit emergency services. Deliberate fiber cuts at the Sacramento and Austin airports delayed flights and knocked out cellular service.
In Fort Worth, a technician and a contractor came across a copper thief carrying an AR-15-style rifle.
“This rise in criminal acts creates immense financial strain,” said Robert Cantu of NCTA, pointing to cascading effects on emergency response, health care, energy grids and public transportation.
State law is uneven. Kuper Jones, also of NCTA, said some states list oil and gas, airports and railroads as critical infrastructure but leave out communications networks. He named Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina as states that get it right. North Carolina also makes scrap metal sellers record where the property came from, the date, and the plate number, make, model and color of the delivery vehicle.
Japan and Korea
Record prices have set off the same wave overseas. In Japan, copper from JX Metals recently topped 2.3 million yen a ton, more than 50% above a year earlier.
Dozens of water meters vanished at once last month from a public rental housing complex in Machida, Tokyo. Residents found out only when water leaked into hallways and ceilings. Hundreds of meters were taken in Hyogo Prefecture, mostly from empty public housing, and in some cases the water was still running. Investigators there suspect organized crews that spotted vacant homes by tape on mailboxes or management markings. In Kanagawa Prefecture, damage reports in the first four months of the year already exceed the total for all of last year. At a vacant Kobe apartment complex awaiting redevelopment, water shutoff valves and electrical parts were stripped, with damage reaching up to 500 households.
South Korea has its own cases. Police in North Jeolla Province caught a gang that pulled wiring from buildings across several regions. Another ring took copper plates from more than 200 bridges in about 20 regions within a few weeks. Fire hydrant parts disappeared from apartments in Ulsan. The Korean National Police Agency’s National Office of Investigation began a special crackdown through the end of June and is inspecting scrap dealers and recyclers.
Sources
- Copper Theft Surge Hits Telecom Infrastructure Amid AI Expansion
- Copper Theft Surges in Japan as Thieves Target Water Meters and Valves
- Telecom Industry Summit Puts Focus on Harms from Copper Theft
