Three people from Spartanburg, South Carolina, are accused of cutting and stealing AT&T utility wire from the Dana area of Henderson County over several months, according to the sheriff's office. Two of the three were arrested last month, while a third remains on the run.
The Henderson County Sheriff's Office said it opened the investigation after multiple reports of AT&T utility wire cut and taken from Dana, as reported by WLOS. That work led deputies to identify Timothy Robert Harrison, 25, Justin Tayler Bunch, 27, and Candace Lynn Pierce, 28, all of Spartanburg, as suspects in the scheme, according to WSPA 7News.
Charges Pile Up Against Bunch and Pierce
Bunch faces the heaviest load of charges in the case, according to WSPA 7News: four counts of injury to utility wire, four counts of possession of stolen property, six counts of obtaining property by false pretense, and four counts of felony conspiracy. Arrest warrants cited by the station say Bunch sold stolen wire to a metal recycling center in Flat Rock, pocketing $1,060.50 from the sales, officials said.
Pierce, meanwhile, was charged with one count of felony conspiracy, the station reported, a charge the sheriff's office separately confirmed to WLOS. Deputies arrested both Bunch and Pierce last month, per WSPA 7News, while the investigation into their alleged roles in the wire-cutting operation continued.
Harrison Still at Large With Multiple Warrants Pending
Harrison, the third suspect, remains at large, according to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office. He is wanted on three counts of injury to utility wire, three counts of possession of stolen property, three counts of felony conspiracy, and one count of conspiracy to obtain, per WSPA 7News. The sheriff's office told WLOS that Harrison still has pending warrants connected to the case.
Anyone with information about Harrison's whereabouts is asked to call the Henderson County Sheriff's Office at (828) 697-4911 or submit a tip through the agency's mobile app, according to WSPA 7News.
Part of a Statewide Surge in Copper Theft
The Dana case lands amid what AT&T describes as a sharp rise in copper theft across North Carolina. The company says these crimes have resulted in more than $540,000 in costs in North Carolina, according to AT&T. The company has also reported more than 215 copper theft incidents in North Carolina so far this year, after more than 630 incidents in the state in 2025, per the same AT&T account — though a separate report from WWAY TV3 cites the 630-incident figure for 2025 without specifying whether it uses the same reporting methodology as AT&T's statewide tally.
The stakes go beyond dollar figures. Cutting a single copper cable can disconnect about 100 customers and a public safety office, while cutting fiber lines can knock out service to hundreds of customers and a 911 office, according to WECT. Thieves typically cut or dig up communication lines, strip out the copper and sell the metal for scrap, WPDE reported.
Similar Cases Across Western North Carolina
The Dana investigation is not an isolated incident in the region. An investigation in Buncombe County led to charges against five people after authorities said the thefts caused widespread service outages, according to WWAY TV3. In Pitt County, two people were charged after allegedly stealing about $25,000 worth of copper from an AT&T cell tower site, the station reported, and three people were accused of posing as AT&T workers while stealing roughly $10,000 worth of copper wire from telephone poles in northwest Charlotte.
A separate investigation in Cherokee County, which stretched into Polk County, Tennessee, and Fannin County, Georgia, led to three arrests tied to the cutting and theft of communication lines from utility poles, according to WLOS. Perry Chinn and Andrew Morrow were arrested June 22 and June 23, 2026, respectively, and charged with injury to public property in that case, the station reported.
The real-world toll of these outages has already hit at least one Western North Carolina business. In early June, stolen internet lines forced Good Pizza Company in Swannanoa to close for a day because employees could not access essential business systems, according to WPDE.
What North Carolina Law Says
Willful injury to public-utility property is identified as a felony under North Carolina law, per the North Carolina General Assembly. Separate statutes address obtaining property by false pretense and possession of property whose taking amounts to larceny or a felony, while another statute sets the punishment for conspiracy to commit a felony, according to the legislature's published statutes.
