JUNCTION CITY, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon telephone service outage in the Junction City area this week has been blamed on the theft of an 80-foot-long section of cable for the copper wire it contained.
The Register-Guard reports the Tuesday morning theft left hundreds of people in the Junction City and Cheshire areas without landline telephone service.
But the wire was recovered after Lane County sheriff’s deputies got a tip about a suspicious man in a pickup truck.
Investigators said metal theft often provides a quick payoff for drug users. The value of scrap copper is about $4 per pound.
