AT&T is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of copper wire thieves targeting telephone lines across metro Atlanta. The company says the thefts can do far more than cost it cable — they can sever phone service to thousands of customers at once, including law enforcement agencies, communication centers, daycares and buildings that rely on fiber and copper lines alike.
According to Atlanta News First, the reward is meant to draw out tips on thieves slicing into copper cables, which can fetch roughly $6 per pound on the resale market. Jenaro Hare, lead investigator for AT&T Global Security, said copper theft is a huge problem in metro Atlanta and across the nation, according to 11Alive. Thieves aren't just hitting copper, either — the cables often run alongside fiber-optic lines that look similar, and AT&T has said cutting into one frequently damages the other by mistake, a risk NPR has reported on nationally.
Georgia Among the Worst-Hit States
Todd Zeiler, AT&T's vice president of construction and engineering, said Georgia ranks among the top three states in the country for copper theft, per 11Alive's report. He described the challenge as significant and said local authorities and Georgia legislation are important partners in fighting it. Those incidental fiber cuts can ripple outward, affecting next-generation telecom services and even cell sites, not just the copper line thieves originally targeted.
The stakes go beyond dropped calls. Copper-line cuts can cause outages that leave customers unable to connect at all, and the article notes that AT&T repair technicians are sometimes called out in the middle of the night to fix the damage, putting crews at risk working roadside after dark. Hare's team partners with local law enforcement task forces for targeted checks in high-volume areas, according to 11Alive's reporting.
Rising Copper Prices Fueling the Problem
The financial incentive behind the thefts has been climbing. AT&T External Affairs Director Brandon Hartley said copper prices rose 76% in Georgia in just the past month, according to Atlanta News First's earlier reporting on the reward program. That price spike helps explain why AT&T has rolled out similar bounties elsewhere — the company is also offering $10,000 rewards in Oklahoma, Kentucky and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, plus $20,000 rewards in California and Missouri, the outlet reported.
Nationally, the scale of the problem is striking. AT&T recorded more than 10,400 copper wire theft incidents last year, or roughly 200 a week, with about 4,300 of those in California alone, per NPR's reporting. The company has told NPR that only about 3% of its customers are still connected through copper wire networks at all, underscoring how much of the theft targets infrastructure that's already being phased out.
A Pattern of Brazen Thefts
Georgia has already seen bold examples of the crime. In March 2025, a group dressed as construction workers cut multiple utility poles in Sugar Hill, interrupting residents' internet service and making off with nearly 4,000 feet of copper, according to police cited by Atlanta News First. Separately, Fierce Network has reported that AT&T logged 32 copper theft incidents across the Atlanta metro area, with the majority concentrated in Fulton County. An AT&T spokeswoman told the outlet that Fairburn alone saw 14 incidents, six in a single month, while nearby Palmetto recorded eight.
Industry efforts to fight back have included new tracking technology. Southwire has developed laser-etched wire containing a special code designed to help police and prosecutors trace stolen copper back to its original source, Fierce Network reported. The problem isn't confined to Georgia — on Wednesday, AT&T asked the Federal Communications Commission to again extend its emergency authorization to suspend phone services in parts of Los Angeles because of what it called repeated and pervasive copper theft and vandalism, according to Law360.
For now, AT&T is leaning on its reward offer and cooperation with local law enforcement to try to slow the thefts hitting Atlanta-area neighborhoods. The company has not said whether anyone has come forward to claim the $10,000 reward.
