Copper Wire Stolen From Internet Tower

Copper thieves made off with a small amount of copper wire from a repeater tower owned by area Internet access provider Netport USA.

The theft is believed to have occurred shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday, Netport USA field technician Jared Wilson said.

"We got a call from a customer who said he was online at 2 a.m., and about 2:10 a.m., the service went down," Wilson said.

The repeater tower, located off Farm-to-Market Road 429 in southern Hunt County, serves about 400 Netport USA customers in the Elmo and Quinlan area, he added.

Wilson described the wiring in the tower as "about the size of a hair."

"We hope to have service restored to that area sometime today (Wednesday)," Wilson said, adding that the company planned to file a theft report with the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office.