Copper thieves target landline in Wilmot Township, customers without phone service [Video]

Residents in Wellesley, Wilmot Township, and Perth County are without working home phones and other services, after copper thieves targeted a nearby phone line on Thursday.

Waterloo Regional Police say they received reports of property damage to a Bell box in the area of Lisbon Road and Nafziger Road in Wilmot Township.

The cable hangs above the Nith River, but on Friday all that remained was a downed telephone pole, scrap metal, and a single cable laying across the frozen river.

Bell, which is the parent company of CTV News, attributes the service interruption to someone stealing the phone line for the copper wire inside.

“Bell has experience more than 1,600 security incidents to its network since January 2022, with copper theft accounting for 87 per cent of physical incidents on Bell’s network,” a Bell spokesperson told CTV News.

Police say 122 thefts related to wire, metal, or scrap were …