Thieves attempt to take copper wire from radio tower

[JayR]

From WINK News:

Thieves attempt to take copper wire from radio tower

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla.- Authorities are investigating after someone tried to steal copper wire from a radio tower this afternoon.

This caused classic rock station 94.5 The Arrow [WARO] to go off the air for almost an hour today.

If only the thieves electrocuted themselves…

 

[HadYourPhil]

Yeah. Too bad. Unfortunately, that site is very remote and rather poorly secured. The tower's management company doesn't seem to want to spend a nickel more than the bare minimum to keep it going. I used to go to that site rather often, so I'll be curious to see what the thieves were after!

 

[coolaid213]

When I worked for T-Mobile we were constantly replacing ground cables that had been stolen by meth-heads. The interesting thing about these tower sites is that each communications company has their own lock to the gate daisy chained with all the other company's locks. So there isn't just one code that can get you in the gate, there are many that can get you in. Obviously, most of the bigger tower sites are remotely located, and they generally have limited security camera coverage... I always figured that if I hit rock bottom I could go raid all the tower sites in the metro area and retire... lol. Fortunately, that never had to happen! But to this day I find it amazing how easily accessible these tower sites are. Sometimes when I am driving past a cell tower site, I get nostalgic and open the gate and walk in... just kidding, I never actually do that...

 

[Frank Ferreri]

Years ago our AM station was located in Dunedin off of RT 19 on CR 95. Our FM and home base was in New Port Richey. The AM site was unmanned at night. Someone stole the beacon light from the AM tower. Having a fear of heights this really boggled my mind!