Copper Cables, Fiber-Optic Wires Stolen In Alpine

The theft occurred sometime between midnight and 1 a.m., according to San Diego County sheriff's Sgt. Joseph Passalacqua. The thieves climbed into a manhole on Alpine Boulevard in the Peeutz Valley area, and then cut the cables, he said in a statement.

"It appears that 75 feet of fiber-optic cable was taken along with six feet of 600 strand copper cable," Passalacqua said.

The theft left sheriff's substations in both Alpine and Pine Valley without Internet, and the Verizon network was also affected, according to the sergeant. Passalacqua said a total of 10 million broadband lines were down.

There were initial reports that the U.S. Defense Department was affected by the outage. 10News contacted their office in Washington and a representative said they were unaware of the outage.

Though the severed cables also serve the 32nd Street Naval Station in downtown San Diego and the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, no disruptions at the bases occurred, a military representative said.

The theft was believed to have affected some local wireless customers, though it was unclear how many, according to Anna Crowe, a spokeswoman for AT&T, which owns the cut copper cable and one of the fiber-optic lines.

By shortly after 1 p.m., repair crews had reconnected one of the light-transmitting strands, restoring full wireless service, she said. The rest of ATT&T's fiber-optic lines were expected to be fixed by mid-afternoon. Patching the copper cable, a more time-consuming process, could continue overnight, Crowe said.

According to Louisiana-based CenturyLink, who owns the other fiber-optic line, up to 100,000 businesses throughout the nation could be without Internet Tuesday.

Back in December, CenturyLink said they experienced another theft of wire in the same area. There was only a minimal impact then.