Verizon offers $10K reward to apprehend Southern Cal. copper thieves

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) continues to be a victim of copper theft, suffering over 12 incidents in its Southern California market alone in recent months.

Like it has done in other markets, the service provider is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that will help the local authorities arrest and prosecute whoever was responsible for the latest spate of vandalism on its network.

According to Verizon, the incidents took place in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, with over 10,000 feet of copper cable stolen and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Due to these thefts, thousands of local phone customers experienced telephone and Internet service delays--up to several days in some cases.

Verizon said it is working closely with state and local law enforcement authorities to identify those responsible.

Copper theft has been an ongoing issue for Verizon. Over the past year, the service provider has reported similar incidents in other parts of its territory, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Verizon is hardly alone. Similar incidents have been growing at fellow telcos AT&T (NYSE: T), FairPoint (Nasdaq: FRP), Frontier (Nasdaq: FTR) and Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), all of which have been waging wars on copper theft with help from community members and state lawmakers.

A number of states including West Virginia, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky and Washington have developed laws to help curb copper theft. Pennsylvania State Sen. Herb Snyder (D-Jefferson) introduced a bill to thwart copper theft in 2012. 

For more:
- see the release

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