Thousands of Spectrum customers across the San Bernardino area lost service Sunday morning after fiber lines were cut, forcing technicians to splice more than 1,100 individual fibers — each one roughly the width of a human hair — before crews could bring the network back online. Spectrum said it expected full service restoration by early Sunday night, with about half of the affected customers back up by around 5 p.m.
According to the San Bernardino Sun, the cut happened Sunday morning and immediately disrupted service for a large swath of Spectrum subscribers in the area. The company filed a vandalism report with the San Bernardino Police Department and is now offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest, with tips directed to Spectrum's line at 833-404-TIPS (8477) or to local law enforcement.
A Pattern Stretching Across Southern California
A Spectrum statement said the San Bernardino incident is one of a number of attacks affecting customers, according to the same report. The company noted that fiber lines contain no copper, yet they continue to be targeted anyway. A similar act of vandalism struck Harbor City in August, and additional fiber-cutting attacks have also hit Whittier, Northridge and Porter Ranch, per the outlet's reporting. Verizon customers separately experienced temporary outages throughout Southern California in August.
That August wave included a deliberate cut in Baldwin Hills that severed more than 1,400 Spectrum fiber strands, knocking out service across Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Fairfax, Koreatown and other Los Angeles neighborhoods, as reported by the Beverly Hills Press. Spectrum offered a $25,000 reward after that attack too, and a regional Verizon outage followed two days later, with no connection established between the two vandalism incidents. Months earlier, in May, an intentional morning cable cut near Harbor City forced technicians to repair more than 800 damaged fiber lines after service went down across Wilmington, San Pedro, Torrance and Harbor City, according to the Wilmington Chronicles, which noted the Thursday morning timing.
Why Vandals Keep Slicing Glass Fibers
Criminal attacks on communications infrastructure have become a growing issue affecting the entire telecommunications industry, threatening public safety in the process. Industry data shows attacks on telecom infrastructure rose 59% since 2024, with the industry recording 18,327 attacks nationwide in 2025 that affected more than 11.8 million customers across the country, per the San Bernardino Sun's report. Research from the NCTA indicates that thieves seeking scrap copper can damage fiber-optic lines instead, unaware that fiber strands have no scrap value — leaving fiber networks as costly collateral damage.
The financial toll of this trend extends well beyond repair crews and splice kits. DC Journal reported on July 24, 2026, that NCTA estimated that thefts of communications infrastructure cost the U.S. economy between $294 million and $1.47 billion in 2025, with outages affecting emergency communications, healthcare, schools, businesses and public safety. The same data showed California and Texas together accounted for more than half of the attacks recorded nationwide that year. Copper theft can leave fiber networks as costly collateral damage.
Legal Stakes and a Push for Tougher Penalties
California treats intentional cable cutting as a serious crime. Under Penal Code Section 591, unlawfully and maliciously cutting or damaging telephone, cable or utility lines is a wobbler that prosecutors can charge as a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in county jail or as a felony carrying up to three years in county jail plus a $10,000 fine, according to Justia Law.
Charter Communications has publicly labeled a 2025 fiber attack in Van Nuys an act of domestic terrorism. Lawmakers in 23 states introduced bills during 2026 aimed at toughening penalties for infrastructure damage and tightening scrap metal resale rules, according to DC Journal's later reporting.
For now, San Bernardino Police are investigating the vandalism report Spectrum filed, and the company is renewing its call for tipsters. Anyone with information is asked to contact Spectrum at 833-404-TIPS (8477) or reach out to local law enforcement directly.
