Hacker News Reader

Comment by krashidov | Hacker News Reader

Could this be sabotage?

That seems more than merely plausible given current tensions and the location/timing connection with NYC and UN.

"Current tensions" has been a convenient boogieman for the past 100 years, if not longer.

You're going to be hard-pressed to find any point in the American empire's life when it doesn't have 'current tensions' with someone or other.

There was a 10-year period starting in 1991 when mostly the US didn't expect much enemy action on our soil.

Sure. It could also be the first sign of the invasion of the Mole-Men.

I thought The Incredibles handled them already?!

There are 400,000 to 800,000 utility strikes a year in the US. Sure you could bury (!) an instance or two of sabotage in there with an "oops".

Recently, I tried calling 811 before digging in my yard. The webpage was broken and the hotline kept me on hold forever. I gave up. Small wonder.

https://blackhydrovac.com/underground-utility-strikes-learn-...

In my country if you want to dig into the ground more than a few meters you'd need to get a permit. Officially everything that is buried is registered but every once in a while they find an old pipe that nobody knows what it is for.

Same in the US, most places. In some cases, it’s even a criminal offense to not call before you dig.

Plenty of people don’t bother and YOLO it, and usually it’s fine - until it isn’t.

Yes that was the 811 I referred to - a US compliance and permitting hotline. They send any utilities mapped in your digging area to come mark their buried lines.

I miss CyberSquirrel.

https://cybersquirrel1.com/

I would put my money on it.

Similar events happened in Europe disguised as thieves stealing fiber optic. This does not have any sense economically, as the value in the market is zero so... either is an honest accident and is cleared in a few days, or is sabotage

>disguised as thieves stealing fiber optic. This does not have any sense economically, as the value in the market is zero

Do you honestly think that crackheads think that far in advance?

I've seen fiberoptic cables stolen from 2 (city) jobsites in the last 5 years, once by tweakers later caught trying to sell them as scrap copper and the second thief was never caught. This happened even though the spools had big signs on them saying "Fiber Optic Cable - NO COPPER".

> big signs on them saying "Fiber Optic Cable - NO COPPER".

Crackheads can be manipulated easily, or bribed. Maybe the value was in that they were paid with $50 in drugs for doing that.

People too dumb to plan X and to inconsistent to spend several days honing the plan, somehow avoided all the traps and locks, go for the precise location and do X... either they worked in the place and are very familiar with each room, or there is a director manipulating them.

With the added value that addicts can be overdosed easily if they try to strike back and treat to getting too talkative. Nobody would bat an eye.

This used to happen more often in the past, when copper thieves mistook fiber for conductor. There were cases where critical systems were shut down due to fiber optic theft, and the thieves were caught burning the sheathing to expose the... glass.

I drive by a VZ pedestal that has had it's service doors wide open for about 3 weeks.

The punchline is that it's about 2000 ft from the local CO, where (I believe) half the town's lines terminate.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com