Coppers thieves hacking down phone lines

Coppers thieves hacking down phone lines


Rowan Gallagher

Live phone lines are being cut down all over Mayo and surrounding counties by copper thieves hoping to sell the metal for scrap.
An Eircom spokesperson has confirmed to The Mayo News that phone connections were severed in the affected areas from July 27 to August 10 leaving 130 people without a phone service.
The affected areas include; Foxford, Charlestown, Ballyvary, Aclare in Co Sligo and Kilconly in Co Galway. Gardai were notified when residents realised that they could not make or receive calls last week.
Both the poles and the wires were cut down in the areas and it is believed that the copper was stolen for scrap metal resale value.
A spokesperson for Harmond Lane Metal Company, Athlone told The Mayo News that there has been quite a large fall off in metal sales since the construction bust, but the price of copper is high at the moment.
“The price of copper has risen substantially in recent months and is now sold for approximately €3.50/kilo but cabled wire that is found in Eircom phone lines is worth less, at around 50c/kilo unless it is stripped,” he said.
Copper scrap is melted in an electric arc furnace but cabling is often recycled into granulated mulch due to the small diameter of the wires.
Gardai in Galway are currently investigating damage and theft to housing estates where a large quantity of copper cylinders and solar heating systems were either damaged or stolen at an estimated cost of €100,000.
Two men were arrested in Carlow for breaking into a live ESB facility which housed thousands of Euro worth of copper wire on the evening of  Saturday last.
Gardai in Swinford have also received unconfirmed reports of the thieves striking the Ballinrobe area.
Lead has historically been a highly sought after-metal for thieves but with the rise in copper prices the thieves seem to have moved on to stealing the more lucrative copper metal.
Gardai investigating are asking members of the public to report any activity around phone lines – whether it looks legitimate or not.