Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: ee5391aa%hydra.unm.edu@ariel.unm.edu (Duke McMullan n5gax) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Telephone Cable "Rustling" in the Wild West :-) Message-ID: Date: 4 Oct 89 14:00:11 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM Lines: 27 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 431, message 1 of 9 In article kitty!larry@uunet.uu. net writes: > During the 1970's there was a particular problem with thefts of >telephone cable in the southwestern U.S., especially Arizona, New Mexico >and Texas. The target was aerial lead-sheathed toll cable in remote >areas of these states. AT&T Long Lines was a particular victim. There is a town called Las Vegas, located in northeastern New Mexico. A few years back, when the price of copper was rising exponentially, one of the phone people was driving out to do some routine maintainence on some lines south of town. From up on a hill, he saw four turkeys (human variety) in a pickup truck taking down the copper lines on part of the local distribution net for that rural area. He "phoned home" on the radio, and the Sheriff was dispatched. They caught three of the four without difficulty, but the fourth had disappeared. After a few minutes they found him hiding under the truck. I never heard what happened to those guys, but maybe I don't need to know. Phone home, d "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." -- Mack the Knife Duke McMullan n5gax nss13429r phon505-255-4642 ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu