It's becoming a big problem in the UK - my parents phone and broadband was down for about a week when their (rural) wires were stripped. The thieves get a truck, tie on the cable and drive, rips the whole thing out the [shallow ditch in the] ground, wrap it up and sell it ... then they come back a week later, when the cable has been replaced, and do it again.

Someone tried to steal the gas pipes from a business premises in my city, left gas leaking in to the building for 24 hours or so, didn't even manage to make off with the pipe. Morons.