Copper wire thief trap nabs 3 suspects in western Quebec

CBC News

· Posted: Mar 07, 2025 9:48 AM EST | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

A sting operation by telecommunications institution Bell led to 3 arrests aft 200 metres of copper wiring was stolen from rod lines astir Gracefield, Que.

The alleged theft happened connected the nighttime of Feb. 25. Mario Barbieri, manager of operations of tract services for Bell, said Thursday that technicians from the institution noticed the missing cable as good arsenic harm to 4 Hydro-Québec poles. 

Due to the damage, 124 Bell customers mislaid work for much than two days.

While Bell technicians were making repairs, they noticed thing else.

"The cables that had been really taken down and stolen were really hidden adjacent by and [the technicians] noticed the the determination of wherever those cables were," Barbieri said.

Barbieri said aft discovering the hidden heap of cables, they had the thought of setting a surveillance trap to drawback the thieves should they return.

The institution stationed a security defender successful the area, who waited determination 4 days until they saw idiosyncratic adjacent the stash and called police.

That suspect, a 54-year-old from Gracefield, was arrested by the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) portion they were on their snowmobile.

Marc Tessier, an SQ spokesperson, told Radio-Canada the fishy had the copper wires successful a sled. They were charged with possession of stolen goods, possession of burglary tools and breaching a probation order.

Two other suspects, a 35-year-old from Gatineau and a 39-year-old from Plaisance, Que. were arrested the adjacent day in Kazabazua, Que.

The bigger problem

Barbieri said since 2022, the institution has seen cable stolen from its national network nearly 2,000 times.

"With terms of copper going up, we spot immoderate of those incidents besides increasing," helium said.

Copper ligament is typically utilized successful accepted telephone and DSL net lines.

In 2024, the Canadian Telecommunications Association said the number of copper ligament theft incidents grew by astir 200 per cent annually from 2021 to 2023.