A reward of up to $10,000 was being offered to the public Thursday for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for stealing Cox Communications equipment in Oceanside and Vista.
The communications company and law enforcement officials believed that the line extenders, amplifiers, batteries and other telecommunications equipment stolen in North County were either being sold as scrap metal or to contractors outside of the country, according to San Diego Crime Stoppers.
Cox said it has experienced other losses in well, in Los Angeles County in Palos Verdes and Santa Barbara County in Goleta. Other Southern California companies have reported similar equipment thefts.
Areas from which the equipment is taken can experience a temporary service outage, which could include a loss of emergency 911 telephone service, officials said.
Anyone with information on the series of thefts was asked to call the sheriff’s department at (619) 956-4000, or to contact Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477 or via the service’s website.
– City News Service
