Jellico Creek residents furious over rampant phone line thefts

At least five times in the last month, residents in the Jellico Creek community of Whitley County have gotten quite a nasty surprise when they pick up their telephones.

No dial tone.

That’s because thieves have gone on a rampage in the area, climbing utility poles and stealing thousands of feet worth of copper phone lines to sell for scrap.

Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. said people who live in the area are fuming mad over it.

"We’ve received quite a few complaints," White said. "It’s a very serious issue. We are trying to do everything we can to help them, but it’s tough … It would be bad to pick up the phone to dial 911 for an emergency and there not be any dial tone."

Nathan Waters, who has lived in the extreme southwestern Whitley County community for over two decades, said the problem has reached a fever pitch. Around 1,500 feet of line was stolen this past weekend making it the fifth time in a month telephone service has been interrupted because of the theft. He said the situation is a "recipe for disaster" because cell phone service is non-existent in the area, leaving landlines as the only reasonable way for many people to get help if they have an emergency.

"You’d hate to have something like this turn into a life or death situation," Waters said. "There’s a lot of elderly people who live out there and at any time they may need an ambulance or something. When you need a phone, you need it! It’s a very dangerous situation."

Waters said one of the main reasons for the problem is that portions of 92W are now less traveled because of a newer road that eliminates many of the dangerous curves on the drive between Williamsburg and McCreary County. It is a prime target for thieves, particularly late at night, since there is less of a chance they will be seen.

"There are some houses out there, but not much traffic at all," Waters said. "I drive that way a lot of times just to be seen."
Waters said once, the lines were stolen on a Sunday in broad daylight while most residents were away at church.

White said residents in the area have asked for extra patrols from police, but it hasn’t helped.

"I don’t think they have been happy with the response they got," White said.

Whitley County Sheriff Colan Harrell said his department has been working closely with Kentucky State Police to try to catch the thieves, but admitted it is a difficult and frustrating task.

"It’s a rough deal to do anything with. We are limited on manpower," Harrell said. "We are going to have to set up something. It’s the same span [of line] that they take over and over again. They have it down to an art."

Harrell said AT&T has rigged certain spans of phone line with alarms to alert police when they have been cut. But the alarms, currently, only notify state police making it difficult for his department to respond quickly.

Harrell said investigators have some hunches about who is committing the thefts, but no solid proof. Also, he said there is likely some unscrupulous scrap dealers in the area who are taking the line that know full well it is stolen.

"There are laws that require them to record the IDs of anyone selling stuff to them and to notify law enforcement if they believe something to be stolen, but we’ve got laws against murder too and people still do it," Harrell said. "You are basically at the mercy of the dealers on that. We have one or two of them that we believe are questionable, though."

Waters said he thinks scrap metal dealers taking the line should be punished.

"You can’t tell me that if someone brings you 1,500 feet of copper phone line you wouldn’t know it was stolen," Waters said. "Don’t you think they would questions that? Seriously, who would have something like that unless it was stolen?"

White said he’s called the Kentucky Public Service Commission about the issue.

The most recent theft in the Jellico Creek area happened Sunday. Phone service was restored by Monday.

White said that, in some areas, AT&T has buried lines to make them harder to steal.