A downtown St. Louis courthouse went without phone service for nearly a week after thieves cut copper lines buried beneath the streets, and now Missouri's junior U.S. senator wants that kind of damage prosecuted as a federal crime. Sen. Eric Schmitt has joined Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, on legislation that would make the theft, vandalism or destruction of copper, fiber and coaxial telecommunications cables a federal criminal offense.
The bill, known as the Combating Critical Infrastructure Vandalism Act, would expand Section 1362 of Title 18 so that federal protections — which currently cover theft or damage to government-owned facilities, per STLtoday.com — would also reach privately operated facilities that provide telecommunications and information services. As reported by Inside Towers, the measure would impose criminal penalties for willful or malicious injury, destruction or theft of covered cables, including attempts and conspiracies, while preserving protections for certain lawful concerted activities and excluding customer premises equipment from the new provisions.
A Courthouse Cut Off, a City on Edge
The courthouse outage, which left phones down for nearly a week after copper thieves severed lines buried beneath Tucker Boulevard and Chestnut Street, is the kind of disruption the bill's backers point to directly. The courthouse outage illustrates the disruption the bill's backers point to. Missouri has emerged as one of the states hit hardest by the problem, with thefts concentrated in Kansas City, St. Louis and Joplin, per KCUR.
AT&T has reported that copper theft cost the company $40 million nationwide and $2.2 million in Missouri during 2025, the station notes. The losses have tracked a sharp rise in copper prices, which spiked to a record $5.69 a pound when the Trump administration announced the tariffs in July 2025; the 50% tariff was imposed on Aug. 1, 2025, according to the same report. In the last six months of 2024, roughly 6,000 copper-wire theft incidents were reported nationwide, with only Texas and California logging more than Missouri, the outlet found.
Beyond Missouri, a Nationwide Pattern
Missouri is far from alone. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association reported 18,327 incidents of theft and vandalism targeting communications networks during 2025, a 59% increase from the year before, affecting more than 11.8 million customers nationwide, according to Inside Radio. West Virginia alone logged 539 such incidents in 2025, ranking among the ten hardest-hit states, the outlet reported, while two dozen states have introduced legislation targeting infrastructure theft and vandalism and 13 others have already enacted related laws. Copper theft is now a felony in 28 states, per the same account.
The stakes go beyond dollar figures. In Oakland, 911 service was knocked out for more than 24 hours after copper-wire theft and damaged fiber-optic lines forced officials to transfer emergency calls to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office and relocate police dispatchers, according to CBS News. In Arcadia, California, 911 calls were disrupted after a man stole 60 feet of underground copper wire, KCUR reported. The Internet and Television Association praised the proposed legislation, saying increasing copper theft and intentional damage disrupt emergency services, harm communities and leave consumers without vital connectivity.
Companion Bill Already Moving in the House
The Senate measure is companion legislation to the Stopping the Theft and Destruction of Broadband Act, introduced in the U.S. House in April 2025, Inside Towers reported. In California, Attorney General Rob Bonta, together with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Los Angeles Police Department, announced results of a copper-wire theft operation that recovered stolen telecommunications wire, according to the California Attorney General's Office.
Padilla, a Democratic senator from California, and Schmitt, Missouri's junior U.S. senator, are betting that a federal statute covering privately operated telecom infrastructure will close gaps that state laws alone have not. For now, the courthouse on Tucker Boulevard stands as a local reminder of what a few feet of missing copper wire can do to a city's phone lines—and the bill would make such copper theft a federal offense.
