To the meth heads who thought fiber had salvage value
Posted by odinsen251a@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 103 comments
Fuck you. I hope you get the help you need to recover. But also fuck you.
Man-e-questions@reddit
I used to be a cable installer. We had people not just steal fiber thinking it was copper. But we would get trouble calls to go check and find someone ran their own rg6 coax cable and spliced it into the fiber to try and steal free cable lol
Sunstealer73@reddit
I have so many questions! What did they do, just tape it together or something?
Man-e-questions@reddit
The usual MO of cable stealers was to take the RG they ran to their house, cut off the connector on the other side and remove the outer jacket several inches, pull the shielding back, then strip back the dielectric covering the center conductor a few inches. They would then butcher the feeder line at the poles or street boxes (because we put locks on the taps), removing the shielding and wrapping their wire around the part they stripped. Then covering with electrical tape or duct tape. This worked on copper feeder but obviously not on fiber. But these people weren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed.
meditonsin@reddit
So they strip the coating off a fibre and wrap a copper wire around the naked fibre? That's some cargo cult bullshit.
Man-e-questions@reddit
As a joke, back when the Etherkiller website came out years ago, my fellow sysadmin made one, so i made one with a fiber connector just to see people’s faces when they saw it on my cubicle wall.
The etherkillers of yesteryear:
www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/
Library_IT_guy@reddit
Now I'm wondering. I work for a public library, and over the years, we've had random ethernet ports just die on public computers. Gotta wonder if someone is getting kicks by killing our ethernet ports with one of these. Probably not. It's a small town. But maybe..
jfoust2@reddit
Will a USB plug fit in an Ethernet port?
Archer007@reddit
Yes. I found this out because one of my helpdesk people thought this was hooking printers up to the network
tagehring@reddit
Not with that attitude, it won't.
GiantofGermania@reddit
The funny thing is, it fits perfectly
Cocax2012@reddit
Funnily enough working in IT i have received a call for a issues with a usb not showing up in windows. Found out they plugged it into the laptops Ethernet port.
nosimsol@reddit
It oddly fits just well enough
dmoisan@reddit
You could find a high-power fiber laser and make a FiberEtherKiller for real!
MalletNGrease@reddit
When you know but don't understand the process.
krustyy@reddit
wut? That's not at all how I stole cable back in college.
I wonder if there's a way around encrypted qam nowadays...
anonymousITCoward@reddit
We picked the lock to the cable box and installed a splitter and gave everyone in the cul de sac free cable, it worked nicely for almost 3 years until the someone called to complain that one of the channels went out...
krustyy@reddit
Hah! When I was up at the top of the telephone pole I was taking orders from neighbors shouting up at me, asking to take the filter off their house number as well.
anonymousITCoward@reddit
You couldn't pay me enough to climb up one of those things... i was working on a an antenna on a roof top, an my way off the roof, i kicked the ladder over and almost went with it... I ended up waiting for someone to get me with a cherry picker... ever since I nope out of the high work
Man-e-questions@reddit
Yeah thats pretty typical for apartments etc. Have seen it all. We just disconnected it when we saw it. Usually we only found them when we received trouble calls from the people actually paying.
SevaraB@reddit
Love it. Especially since they just created a break for the OTDR to map out would-be thieves.
cop1152@reddit
This reminds me of something I did when I was a scumbag, back in the early 1990's. I am not proud of it, but my home POTS telephone service was disconnected because I didn't pay the bill. This was on a Friday, and I wouldn't be able to pay until Monday, but I needed internet over the weekend.
This was the days of dial-up internet.
An elderly man lived across the street from me. He was always in bed early. So...I waited until I knew he was asleep, and I opened the pedestal, located his phone service, and my phone service, and then spliced my copper to his copper.
I went back inside my house, checked for a dial tone, and had internet the entire weekend. I was careful to not use it during the daytime just in case he was using his phone.
Back then dial-up providers authenticated with name and password. They didn't really care what phone number the call originated from.
It is not something I am proud of, but your comment reminded me of that.
bionic80@reddit
Former field services in a different life. We had to call the cops one afternoon because a drop came down in a storm and was on someones roof. Wife called it in at 8 and we already had a tech there. Hubby came home and thought the wife was getting busy with my field guy even though you know, he was on the roof when he got home. came out with a gun and we had to call the cops.... yeah South Milwaukee, why do you ask?
EvenStee@reddit
Fuck them? Was this your personal fiber? Lighten up or you will have a heart attack by the time you’re 40.
ManintheMT@reddit
Lots of fiber installation going on in my area. The spools of fiber I see on work sites are all clearly labeled FIBER in spray paint to deter copper thieves.
who_you_are@reddit
That what a copper spool would want us the think! /S
LaDev@reddit
I used to contract for Verizon and do new service installs for cell towers. I can't tell you how many times I'd pull up and all grounding copper was yanked. We saw a few buildings burn down as a result.
PaulTheMerc@reddit
Can I ask for a slightly more detailed explanation of how that works? I figured it wouldn't be copper used to ground to earth, but I may just be missing something.
LaDev@reddit
Sure. There are large copper bus' to connect #2 solid copper wire, the #2 copper wire is ran around most of the building, all of which connects to an earth lead. Cell towers get hit with lightening - often, so the grounding mechanisms are all over the base stations - everything from interior to exterior is grounded.
ghostkneed218@reddit
Tell them to salvage Flock cameras instead
BigMikeInAustin@reddit
Came here exactly for this. To talk about how Flock cameras supposedly have a lot of top-grade copper.
nycbrew@reddit
Brilliant
havpac2@reddit
Yes a remote site I manage went dark for a week cuz of that. you see there should be more to that cable, that should run to the next pole. It went out at 1:30am ask me how I know? We now have 5g backup for when they come for the next segment. :) telco just ran the fiber wrapped around the old copper. These crooks just trying to be quick
ArcherMiserable@reddit
Smoking glass....
Expensive_Plant_9530@reddit
We had that happen last year. Our ISP had some people rip out like a mile of fibre, thinking it was copper.
odinsen251a@reddit (OP)
We were down literally all day while frontier got their lines repaird. Went down last night just after midnight, pretty sure it wasn't an accident with a backhoe. By my estimate it only cost us about $170k.
ek54ljl@reddit
Eww, sorry to hear that.
Worked in a business years ago where they had the local infrastructure available to have redundant comms out the building in case of digger accident and/or theft.
Worked up to a point... then we found out the cables converged into single infra a mile down the road... thanks drunken operator.
UK I can and do all sorts of backup nowadays with tactical 5G comms, but wholly aware of how big the US is and that you may not have the coverage!
I hope the rest of your week goes better!
ycnz@reddit
Yeah, gotta specify the route, or else , yeah, is all consolidating somewhere
norcalscan@reddit
Our 5G towers are fed by the same fiber plant. So anything upstream by a few miles takes it all down.
The_Koplin@reddit
I have a specific stipulation in some of my contracts with telco's/isp's that 'no shared' infrastructure can exist unless approved or has a backup as part of the project. This means no shared router, no shared path, and all points in their control that handle our data, need backup power (UPS + generator) up to the edge of the providers network.
It is expensive but worth it, our downtime is $20k+ per hour. We have had zero telco related outages in nearly 14 years because of it. Even with earthquakes braking the undersea fibers in the area, backhoe fade at a telco datacenter several times, and even when the backup microwave relay towers froze over in more then 6 feet of ice.
Finaly we also have Starlink dishes in cases that we can pull out and use in an extreme emergency. Or just for events and things that poor planning sometimes lends itself to.
fresh-dork@reddit
you gotta follow it up or else one of your paths will sub out 3 times until it's timeshared with that first path
The_Koplin@reddit
1st path is Fiber from GCI (Alaska United fiber ring from Seattle/Portland up to Anchorage and beyond)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_United
2nd path is Alaska Power and Telephone (microwave relay across south east Alaska)
https://www.aptalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/APT_NETWORK_8216.pdf
3rd is Ketchikan Public Utilities (KPU) a community owned fiber that runs from Prince Rupert Canada to Ketchikan Alaska
https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/ketchcan1-submarine-fiber-cable-system
4th Starlink uses the KPU's fiber as there is a ground station here, however due to the polar ring for Starlink, there is a space based laser link that can bypass any issues with downlinks along the west coast.
https://dishycentral.com/starlink-ground-station-locations (Ketchikan) right between Anchorage and Washington State.
https://interestingengineering.com/science/spacex-adds-laser-links-to-10-starlink-satellites-in-polar-orbit
Contract is with GCI, they subbed to KPU & AP&T. KPU and GCI share the physical poles that KPU (power division) owns and operates, and thus the fiber paths share a number of common failure points on land. Once they hit the water they take different paths. The folks at GCI network operations contact me proactively and let me know exactly the cause and expected duration of everything that might impact our services. That's another part of our contract. I don't have to wait on hold. I don't ever have to guess about what the issue is. Sometimes we will proactively failover a line knowing some upstream maintenance will happen and rather not wait to see if a router does the job correctly. In one rare case GCI held off on planned maintenance in another part of their network because the redundant path (AP&T) was not operational at the time, if they did the maintenance I would have had an outage so they postponed until AP&T could come back online.
Not sure if you were joking or just curious about the setup 😄
bigfartspoptarts@reddit
what the fuck am I doing with my life, I understood none of that
bionic80@reddit
Never piss off the john deere club, they can rip MILES of fiber out of the ground quicker than you can say 'spring tillage'
Advanced_Vehicle_636@reddit
If an outage is costing you that much, surely you have multiple lines into an office with either SDWAN or BGP... right?!
NoSelf5869@reddit
Yeah and if they don't have redundancy, and he has informed the bosses about the risks, why would you care about the cost of downtime. It's not your company or money. If the company doesn't care, why should you?
unknwnerrr@reddit
This reminded me of one time an outage was caused by someone shooting up the fiber box in the street.
Admin_Stuff@reddit
The last two times our fiber went down was due to vandalism. And they told me the first time someone shot it. Crazy. Affected quite a large area…not just us.
Euphoric-Blueberry37@reddit
Cooker?
amishengineer@reddit
This happens ALOT. People just shoot guns at infrastructure...
sadmep@reddit
for any sopranos fans that see this post
Masam10@reddit
Guy was an interior decorator.
ansibleloop@reddit
He killed 16 Chechens!
anonymousITCoward@reddit
my precaffeinated brain thought that was cheetos... i needed to read it 4 times =(
NDaveT@reddit
*Czechoslovakians.
Nyct0phili4@reddit
His house looked like shit
Rxorcistt@reddit
Lot of money in this shit
OttoCheyFen@reddit
Probably was at the time, tbh.
Skrunky@reddit
If I was a carpenter and you were a douchebag
soliwray@reddit
Very observant, the sacred and the propane.
Lazy-Function-4709@reddit
Quasimodo predicted all this
anesthesiaa1989@reddit
High speed Internet access
Cupelix14@reddit
Happens in NorCal. Probably everywhere that meth is popular. Haven't run into fiber thieves but copper gets stripped all the time.
yer_muther@reddit
At one of my mills two fellows broke into the substation to steal the copper. We think they figured it was off since the mill was on long term shutdown. It cost one of them their life. The other had major burns.
michaelpaoli@reddit
Yeah, fiber is often collateral damage when the go to steal the copper.
Recently happened to someone I know - took out their fiber ... and that of a whole lot of other customers - all at the same time ... not to mention also the services that were on copper at the same time.
So, how's your single points of failures ... did you physically trace from each of your sites back to your ISPs' networking locations / interconnect point? Oh, three ISPs and ... they all go across that same bridge downtown ... uhm, yeah, about that ...
Arudinne@reddit
We learned one of our offices from an acquisition didn't have redundant paths when both the AT&T and Spectrum fiber services dropped after a backhoe incident.
We were already on track to vacate that office so that just accelerated the plan.
abn0rmalcreation@reddit
When I started working at my job, I noticed that our buildings dmarc panel is exposed outside and unlocked. Lots of copper in there. Also lots of meth heads that live overnight in the area. Somehow the methheads never checked that panel....
Secret_Account07@reddit
I imagine that’s a little too advanced for them lol
ManintheMT@reddit
Maybe they realize that copper is live and don't want to be electrocuted.
SpotlessCheetah@reddit
I thought I was in the LA subreddit.
FerretBusinessQueen@reddit
It’s late, I’m tired, I wasn’t sure what subreddit I was in and first I thought you were cussing at methheads because you were the one who tried to salvage fiber. I was like wtf? But yeah, fuck them. Don’t do meth kids.
free2game@reddit
As someone who lives in Arizona I thought this was a local subreddit at first.
NDaveT@reddit
If it was about street light wiring I would have thought a Saint Paul, Minnesota sub.
SVSDuke@reddit
Or if you do, know what copper looks like...
odinsen251a@reddit (OP)
Get some rest brother, I feel you.
kellyrx8@reddit
Saw a quick clip about that happening in Houston....thinking its copper and its fiber,,,,cutting it and fucking shit up for EVERYONE
cdoublejj@reddit
this shit happens all the time, least round here. more notably for one client after they left on prem for cloud.
takeiteasyradioshack@reddit
Allegedly people are stealing fiber optic cables to smoke the glass (rumor i heard in ZA)
Nyct0phili4@reddit
This wouldn't have happened if you'd just used WiFi instead of running unnecessary lines like you were told by the CEOs IT affine nephew. Could have saved a lot of money, but I hope you've learned your lesson /s
This comment is intellectual property of /r/ShittySysadmin
ComeSwirlWithMe@reddit
I mean, it has value if you want to mess with people. Value in their suffering.
10/10 enjoying others suffering when I steal their neighborhood fiber. Lots of digging, but personally worth swimming in their misery.
BrainWaveCC@reddit
Yeah, I have Frontier fiber and Starlink for the home office, and over the past 3 years, Starlink has saved us 3 or 4 times for exactly the same reason...
whythehellnote@reddit
Ahh, last week:
Off site fibre laying is one thing I'm happy to have outsourced, someone else gets to stand next to a busy road in the driving rain to fix it.
Rare to have two thefts in two separate areas at the same time though, so short of a brief reroute there's no real harm. Well apart from the guys who get wet.
haZhat@reddit
I be glassin'
_bx2_@reddit
Yeah. What he said. Twice last year.
strip_weathers_dino@reddit
Wait what? Enlighten those of us who aren't educated in this branch of IT.
Are people like digging up fiber lines for salvage? What can you even do with it from there?
malikto44@reddit
People dig up almost anything, and even though the conduit is unique to fiber, people still will try to dig it up anyway in hopes there are some copper wires underground that they can yank out, burn the insulation off, and hand to a recycler. Copper prices are relatively high, so when this happens, expect to see fiber cuts. Also, expect to see A/C units smashed, even ones that say they have no copper in them, because copper coated aluminum looks like the real thing to someone not in a normal state of mind.
_bx2_@reddit
We had two major situations happen last year because people vandalized/cut wire and not knowing what it was but it was copper thieves/meth heads.
ZeeroMX@reddit
I realized what the OP was referring to just before reading your comment, I was perplexed at first with the OP post.
barkode15@reddit
Methany thinks it's copper and chops it off a pole. Finds out it's plastic and glass so she sinks off to Walmart to shoplift something instead.
Reelix@reddit
Where I live, they steal it because the glass used makes for colorful beadwork when melted down.
I wish I was joking :(
sssRealm@reddit
It's equivalent of burning down the banana stand
deleteprinters@reddit
There's always money in the banana stand
Every_Club2125@reddit
So you think they're going to be reading this or something?
fieryfredo@reddit
Very confused until realised this wasn't the IBS subreddit
bschmidt25@reddit
I'm City IT (we own our own fiber). Tweakers have ripped our fiber out of the ground three times in the last ten years. After we started welding the manhole covers, they figured out how to crack open a junction box and hooked up their truck to pull the fiber out. Never ending battle with these guys.
XInsomniacX06@reddit
Woosah buddy. Your quitting or getting laid off away from smoking meth and teaching the meth heads Bout different mediums.
BlitzShooter@reddit
You ever tried to own anything nice in DTLA? This is what life here feels like.
Impossible_IT@reddit
Gotta do a PSA for those that steal copper that if you come across fiber optic cable that they have to look into the fiber to make sure it’s copper!
cohortq@reddit
Is that what caused the Lumen outage?
ek54ljl@reddit
Too many words. Just the first and last pair.
Sorry, not much sympathy from me. People make their own choices.
However, USA leadership should be working to fix this blight on society instead of grifting away thieving money, manipulating markets, causing worldwide upset, starting wars, insulting other countries and crashing the country.
FerretBusinessQueen@reddit
But how would what you propose benefit the 1%? What outrageous socialist suggestions! /s
Nah we fucked
Hyperion_Silenus@reddit
Fuck you meth head
RepulsiveGovernment@reddit
First time? Happens to me several times a month. I feel for you brother.
B1naryD1git@reddit
Wow tough