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The saying goes that criminals will steal anything that isn’t bolted down, but the opposite now seems to be true in Nottinghamshire (England), where a spate of recent metal thefts has seen criminals making off with the steel covers from several of Virgin Media’s (O2) broadband and phone street cabinets.
The situation, which typically leaves such cabinets exposed to the elements and thus at risk of damage, is unusual because unlike the normal targets of metal theft in telecoms networks (e.g. copper cables, batteries etc.), the relatively thin steel of such cases doesn’t tend to attract much value from scrap metal yards (e.g. prices vary, but it can be as much as around £200 per tonne; you’d need to steal a fair few cabinet shells to reach a tonne).
According to the BBC News, which identified the problem and has some pictures of the exposed cabinets, a number of covers for Virgin Media’s street cabinets have recently been stolen around the Nottinghamshire area. Naturally, Virgin Media has asked local residents not to touch or go near the cabinets until engineers could attend, although the operator said the safety risk was low.
So far as we can tell from the pictures, most of the cabinets that have been targeted seem to be of the older and smaller variety, which may carry Virgin Media’s Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) based DOCSIS 3.1 network (broadband, phone and TV). But we have seen some other evidence of modern cream coloured FTTP carrying cabinets also being targeted in different areas.
A Spokesperson for VMO2 said:
“Unfortunately, following a recent wave of metal theft in the Nottingham area, covers of cabinets housing broadband equipment have been targeted and stolen.
If residents in the area notice any cabinets with missing lids, they are advised to report this to the relevant operator.”
Sadly, the perpetrators of such crimes never have any regard for the harm they could cause to locals, some of which are dependent upon related services and would be at risk if local services were to be disrupted.
Problems with Virgin Media’s cabinets can typically be reported by dialling 0330 333 0444 or posting to this thread on Virgin Media’s Community Forum.