Thieves — possibly hunting for copper to recycle for illicit profit — damaged Spectrum fiber optic cables in western Riverside County on Saturday, Jan. 3, briefly cutting service to some customers of the company’s television, internet and phone services.
Spectrum, which on Dec. 24 noted similar damage to lines in Chino Hills, is offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible.
Such acts of vandalism against communications providers are surging nationwide, according to an industry report.
Saturday’s vandalism affected customers “in the thousands,” said Dennis Johnson, a Spectrum spokesman, in Eastvale, Riverside and parts of Jurupa Valley including Mira Loma and Rubidoux. Customers in portions of Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County also suffered outages. Service has since been restored, Johnson said.
He also noted that if someone was looking for copper in the Spectrum cables, as the company believes, they went away disappointed, as those cables do not contain copper.
Some other communications providers, however, do have cables containing copper, which can be recycled for $1.50 to $4 per pound, depending on its grade.
At an industry summit in October, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said, a report revealed that between June 2024 and June 2025, there were 15,540 vandalisms of communications cables nationwide, disrupting service for more than 9.5 million customers.
Almost 10,000 such incidents were reported in the first half of 2025 alone, the report said, cutting people off from commerce, education, health care, and public safety. Homes, businesses, federal buildings, military bases, hospitals, schools and 911 dispatch centers were affected.
An industry report called for stronger laws, increased prosecution of theft and vandalism, stricter scrap metal regulations and better security measures to deter repeat offenders.
The vandalism of communication cables comes on top of thefts of copper from locations including street lights, pipes, heating and air conditioning units, cell towers and utility substations. Copper thieves also have targeted Los Angeles’ Sixth Street Viaduct, known as the “Ribbon of Light,” by stealing wiring.
Spectrum asks anyone with information on the damage to its cables to call Spectrum at 833-404-8477 or local law enforcement.