$10K reward offered in Georgia copper thefts

Welcome back, everyone. Well, copper thieves are targeting Georgia's communication network. I feel like it's something that we're seeing more and more AT&T trying to do something about this. In fact, they're offering up $10,000 to help catch them. So our Maria Guzman is live today. She's getting a closer look at some of the damage and the effort to try to prevent these thefts. Good Good morning, and we are in the field. I mean, crews are having to come out here any time during the day to fix this because a lot of the time it does interrupt critical processes Communication throughout our communities and neighborhoods. I'm going to go ahead and flip my camera to show you guys around and also introduce you to Gennaro, who is the lead investigator behind this. So, Gennaro, just walk me through what you are holding there, because that's kind of like the center of this conversation. Hello and thank you for coming out to highlight the seriousness of copper theft here in Georgia. What I have here is a section of aerial copper cable that is used typically to You know, set up your phone lines as well as on top of the copper we utilize fiber which covers the internet section or the cell phone piece for your AT&T services. thieves are going after copper? Why has this been such a spotlight for that? So it's seen as a victimless crime, but in actuality, this affects thousands of customers every day in the event of a copper outage or theft. You have to think about the critical infrastructure. We're talking about hospitals, daycares, all of your emergency services. If you cut this copper, all of those services and those communications will go out. Which then delays the response time for our local services, law enforcement, and public services. Besides copper, what else are they cutting by accident? Well, they're cutting the fiber. And so the fiber is what drives our internet. It drives pretty much all of our AI systems. And so when they're cutting this fiber, the copper, it cuts the fiber as well. And then the whole system and network is down. And then there's a delay in the amount of time that... You know, you may receive an email or you may receive, you know, whatever critical information that you're seeking. And who are you guys working with regarding law enforcement across Atlanta and Georgia? So we're working with all of our local law enforcement partners because we understand the value of building those relationships. And then they're out here in the field. So we're educating them on what the copper looks like, how it affects those services. And in turn, our law enforcement partners are coming together and creating specialized units to target those bad actors to help reduce this critical situation. What should people be looking for if they see someone on the streets that is messing around with the copper and fiber? What are those things that they should be looking for before they make a call? So all of our employees for AT&T are going to be visibly marked with, as you can see, a safety vest. It's going to have AT&T logos and insignias on there. They're going to also have AT&T badges. In the event that you see individuals working or tampering with the lines, they don't have those key indicators that they are AT&T employees, you can pick up the telephone and dial 911 to be safer than sorry to get someone out to further investigate. Okay and then just last question, talk to me about just the role that crews are having to play out here once they come to fix this. So again this affects everyone across the board. Our crews are coming out and it's affecting their daily job responsibilities and they have to actually take time out of what is normally their responsibilities for these type of emergencies to restore those services. I mean we have to worry about traffic and other surrounding Situations that may put their lives in danger. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me. I'm going to go ahead and send things back to you guys. I'm going to be here all afternoon talking about this impact. And Georgia is actually top five across the country that is experiencing these copper thefts.