LOS ANGELES COUNTY, California. – The last one in a series of copper wire theftsIn Hacienda Heights, electricity and telephone service to a local high school went out this week, forcing the school to cancel in-person classes.
Thieves stole so much copper wire from Glen A. Wilson High School Sunday night that the school’s power, computer and telephone systems were knocked out. The school was hit twice. Wilson High switched to online learning earlier this week.
“It did bring a little bit of PTSD knowing that we have to go back to online learning,” said parent Jazmin Higgins. “While it may only be a few days and we resume in December, we are preparing to know that we may not have another school year.”
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Late Wednesday night, Principal Danielle Kenfield announced that the school would return to in-person classes on Thursday, although the school is still experiencing electrical issues in some areas of the school, such as the gym, theater and locker rooms.
These recent robberies are not the only disruptions in the community due to recent crime. Large-scale copper thefts left other Hacienda Heights residents without a landline for seven months.
“It’s actually critical,” Andrea Gordon said. “Our cell phone reception there is virtually non-existent.”
Without a landline, Gordon is cut off. Replacing the copper wiring with fiber optic cables may be cheaper for the area telephone provider, but Gordon says those cables don’t work where she lives.
“You need electricity to make fiber work in an area like us,” Gordon said. “Copper cable works for your landline even without electricity, and (Southern California) Edison turns off the power if you are in fire danger.”
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On Monday, the community took the VP of External Affairs to the region’s only service provider, Frontier Communications.
At that meeting, the VP was heard saying, “We have so much cable theft that we’re out of copper. We have to have it shipped to us from Pennsylvania, I guess. And what happens is we have it shipped to us.” , we leave it up, we turn our backs, the next day it’s gone again.”
After that meeting, Gordon had her service reinstated. But other residents, like Amparo Weiner, are still without service. But Ali Weiner said Frontier contacted her family just before her interview with FOX 11 and said they would send a truck to their home on Thursday.
Three people have been arrested for copper thefts in the area, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. But many residents say they don’t believe it will stop.
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