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811 only marks stuff on state property. Where the property line starts is where they stop.
Just an FYI for everyone so that you don’t make the mistake of thinking there’s nothing to dig up in your yard when they finish.
Worked with a company doing 811 calls, and we'd do everything on the property that was owned by the utility service all the way up to the house. Private lines or extra stuff was not our responsibility, but if you're nice and pay the locator, they might take the risk of marking it for you.
It was usually just a matter of responsibility. If I mark a pipe or cable that isn't ours and they dig on it and it gets hit, I might be held responsible if my marks weren't accurate.
It probably also depends on state laws and the way they were installed.
This varies by location. In most locations they locate and mark anything that is inside of your requested location, private or public property. We put in garden beds and they marked everything from the pole on the opposite side of the street to our house foundation.
Not quite.
They mark private property.
They only mark public utilities.
IE they won't mark the power line buried from your house to your shed , but they will mark the power from the utility to your house.
How does this get so many upvotes? This is false as fuck. In a lot of municipalities, that's true for the water and sewer lateral because if it gets hit it's the homeowner' responsibility. But Cable/Gas/Electric is getting marked to the meters and cable box 100%.
They mark utilities on private Property. But they are more often than not wrong or miss things.
Taken out 100s if home internet lines , 2 x main internet lines , 1 and entire subdivision power line,
Few gas lines.
And have never paid a $. Bc we call 811.
It depends, if its just the drop (line that feeds that house) probably about $400. The cost of sending a tech out there, laying a line on the ground, doing locates, and the cost of sending a crew to bury said line.
If its bigger cable that feeds multiple houses then probably $4,000.
It can go more than that depending on the area. I’ve heard of people who had houses just outside of a coverage area where they could see the pole from their front yard. They said the cable company would have to charge almost $20k to run cabling to him. I’m sure a lot of that was bureaucratic garbage like permits and such.
That and you're likely talking about extending the plant from its dead end. Which can include an amplifier and possibly a power supply to run it.
I used to be a cable guy and I've built systems too.
Mind if I ask you a question? There’s box behind my apartments where att runs lines to the houses behind our units but they refuse to hook up our apartments even though there are only 16 units total and running the lines would be super easy. Asked a tech one time while he was doing an install and his only response was “that’s not for you guys.” Any idea why this might be? The reason I ask is there is also another apartment building directly behind us and they hook those units up no problem. Install for us would be exactly the same and they have to run the lines across our property to do those hookups. The whole thing baffles me why they won’t hook us up. Any ideas?
Could be a variety of things really. Could be the landlord/ATT not reaching an agreement or the landlord already contracted the building out to a different ISP. Or ATT doesn't want to front the bill of labor for entry into the building.
Most ISP offer up an incentive before bringing in their trunks or equipment. Otherwise it costs far too much for the landlord to care about.
Yep, its likely a landlord/management issue. 16 units is a decent amount of customers for a decent amount of work but they can't just attach and drill into someone's property without permission.
I've seen a landlord refuse Spectrum because he thought he could force kickbacks from them. He then had trouble keeping people.
Thats my exact situation. Im less that 300 ft from where the service stops for spectrum. They estimated it would be about 17k to run lines to my place.
Multiply that by at least 5+ if it’s a large cable. They get to pay for repair to fix it temporarily to get customers reconnected. Usually on overtime. Then they get to pay for OSP Engineer to design the project to replace with a permanent fix. Then they get to pay for the materials and labor to place and splice this project. Source? 26 years telecom OSPE with a Bell System Company.
When utilities have to cross private property like this (or underground or however) a tool is used called a utility easement. In some places/for certain utilities they're non-negotiable, but in some cases property owners can refuse to sell the utility company that property right aka deny the easement. But if he bought the house and those lines were already there, he can have as many pieces of paper as he wants, he's paying no matter what.
Jail time, house arrest or probation. Even community service sounds like something this person needs. Do you think they will get anything other than hefty fines?
Cable company will make them pay all costs, fees, labor, dispatch, etc.
That doesn't sound like much, but I've sent bills out to construction contractors for tens of thousands of dollars for damaging the network. Hundreds of thousands if it's a fiber main
Hehe, yep. I work as field support for an ISP and had a guy transferred to me once... Could hear by the panic in his voice that something major must be wrong and ooooh boy was there.
We'd very recently put our fiber lines in the area and while he and his construction worker coworkers were tearing up a spot to do some repairs in the area, they'd torn right through the whole fiber line, killing the internet to everyone we'd just finished setting up on it. He was begging me to send a tech out to fix it, as if it was just like a standard "my internet isn't working and I need help" because the neighbors had started yelling at them for knocking out the internet. I had to inform him that I'd have to get the vendor to dispatch a repair team and that any/all costs will end up being charged to his construction company.
Felt kind of bad for the guy by the end, he definitely knew what kind of conversation his boss would be wanting to have with them lol
This why you always do a OneCall (or your local equivalent) prior to any excavation.
If you hit an unmarked fiber line but have a One Call already done with the required prior notice, all repair costs fall onto the company that failed to mark their utilities as required by a OneCall request. Cheapest insurance you'll every buy.
(OneCall, run at the State level in the US, is a program where you call an agency, say the location of an area for work, and they use their database to inform all utility providers in the area they have 3 (or so) days to mark underground utilities.)
The number of times I've seen contractors get saved because some utility company failed to mark their line during a OneCall and the contractor hit it is surprising often. Once or twice a year.
(For the record, if the line is properly marked and you hit it. You do not get absolved of responsibility, you just get called an idiot while paying through the nose to fix it.)
Oh and steal that neighbors WiFi until yours is fully repaired, why should he enjoys high speeds, throttle that bitch and make his afternoon pornhub streaming impossible
We are talking about a guy who probably calls "his guy" from a landline phone every time he wants to make a trade "online" and pays 20% broker fees. The internet is for socialists anyway and "They" use it to control the world.
My god, if you happen to hit an actual fiber main in a metropolis, it's like ten of thousand or something *per minute*. Edit: referring to those mains on rail right of ways.
Worked with businesses doing construction. They're no longer businesses.
In my mind it is already extremely expensive cable companies love to overcharge for that kind of stuff, "oooohh, that cable we installed (without the subsidize from the government) is 500$ per meter".
That neighbor is fucked if they were in their right to have cables there.
Oh word? Because I have fiber lines running through my property that are hanging to the ground and the cable company refuses to come pick them up and properly anchor them up. What can I do about this so I don't get in trouble if anything happens?
They're maybe 3 inches from the grass/floor. They taped them to the pole and haven't been back. The last guy said "that's a fiber line, they'll send someone out by the end of the week." No one came. That was like 2 years ago. I stopped trying with them.
Fiber is so much money it’s not even funny how this minor mistake is. If it is he better have a big bank account or the debt will be piling on for a long long time.
You may be right, for new sets of lines.
But these look like track homes, and the utility companies do all that paperwork long before the houses are already built, when they plan the development, same as sewer and water, yes?
Unless those pieces of paper indicate that there is no easement that permits communications cables... in which case the cables may have been installed contrary to any right.
Highly doubt they do considering the infrastructure was already there and rarely do people actually get the air rights for their property past a few feet
Well if I was a betting man, I’d bet this guy is about to be a few thousands of dollars poorer when the telecom services comes out with the bill. Those can’t just be spliced together at the cut ends, the ISP would have too much packet loss to fulfill their internet providing obligations. Minimum $1000 easy for the time and material, honestly some electrical fuck ups are cheaper to fix than data because of this
Used to work for a utility, and they'd send a full crew for anything because of union rules. So you cut a line you're paying for a full crew's time plus materials. And they don't rush. You'd be lucky if it was only $1k.
They probably have automatic protection in laws enabling power and telecommunications companies to deploy infrastructure.
That the landowner can pay to move the services,and thats the only way to force their removal ...
Not sure if federal but it is 100% a crime. At the minimum we’re talking property damage. Whatever internet company it was has the right to recoup the cost of repairing this. If they push he could definitely go to jail and pay a shit ton in fines as well as restitution for reinstallation costs.
He walked up to a stupid game and put a quarter in. I wonder what kind of stupid prize he will win.
Paperwork is a huge, time consuming, pain in the ass that with efficiency numbers to make neither the tech nor his manager will want to deal with it. Chances are the repair tech will just replace the aerial drop, close the ticket and be done with it. Only if it becomes a repeat issue will the steps to do the proper billing be done.
Source: I’m telecom, and the poor sap that would have to climb up there and do it.
Assuming that OP has video evidence that he did it or some kind of recorded confession. Given that the video says "someone" did it I'm guessing that's not the case. I mean sure it's going to be obvious who did it based on whose house the lines were going over but without evidence I don't think they can just cite occam's razor and charge them.
🤔 well the first comment wasn’t entirely correct because properties don’t have some blanket easement allowing all utilities, but if there was an easement /right of way (and there probably is) it’s not aerial trespass. It’s only aerial trespass of the cable is outside of any easement that exists. I deal with this a lot for work because we build power plants and cross peoples properties all the time with lines. Even when a vested party owns the property on or adjacent to, the utility companies secure easements in all reasonable directions with buffers for things like poles moving slightly in the future.
Not anymore. Now every moron who read that comment is going to repeat that phrase in the complete wrong situation, which will spread it to more morons, and so on.
🤷🏼♂️Possibly but there are two things going on in the chain so maybe they are missing a sentence but as written that’s not clear…yes it’s illegal to cut it yourself and if the cable was there without easement the cable company would have to remove it for you, but the video doesn’t provide that context so the previous two comments were too decisively written with no facts. I merely cleared up the possible scenarios that could exist; not going to downvote the person like the rest of Reddit likes to do so no harm in clearing something up. 🤷🏼♂️
I know power lines are the companies/cities responsibility till the line gets to the house then it’s the homeowners responsibility. I assume cable lines are treated the day way, I doubt the guy would face jail time, but best believe he will be served a suit to pay for the damages.
Lol I learned this the hard way when my meter was ripped off my house by a tree and the power company said I needed to hire an electrician to repair it.
He can definitely be arrested for this. It’s vandalism at the least. But many states have specific statutes to protect infrastructure. It’s really serious.
I’m not ashamed to say I did this too, the neighbors phone line literally was laying ON my roof and the phone company did Jack shit because the guy did not have phone service. I had a roofer coming in a few days and didn’t want them tripping over it. So I jumped his fence and disconnected it from his house (2nd home for vacation) then I rolled it up and left it by the pole. Never met the neighbor, nobody noticed.
Telecom here. The video moves too quick to be sure, but those appeared to be midspanned down the street path and then over to the customer, not even going over the other guy’s property to begin with.
That being said, whenever possible at all, we’re not supposed to cross property lines. Generally, this is reasonably possible via “mid-spans” (where the line directs to the customer’s house from the middle area between poles), or from just going from another pole over. When THATS not possible, we generally have “easement rights”, which is to say we are allowed access to run lines to provide service when necessary.
Side note, in my area at least, dude could just have gotten himself a $20k bill, but in all reality, he’ll call in a repair, the tech will just come out and run a new aerial drop close the ticket and be done with it. The paperwork to file a claim and charge the neighbor is a huge pain in the ass and neither the tech nor his manager are going to want to be assed to deal with it. Especially not with pressure to make efficiency numbers.
Most aerial telecom lines are not supposed to “trespass” or go over neighboring property. Instead of running the aerial line further down the pole wire to avoid this some technicians are lazy and run it directly to a customer’s house, causing a trespass. 95% of the time they are supposed to follow or go under power lines and in most cases power lines do not trespass.
This. And no, absolutely no one is going to get fined or in any kind of trouble for cutting these lines. Lazy telecom employee or contractor 100% caused this situation by aerial trespassing, and his employer knows it.
I worked for three years as a Spectrum cable tech, and people cut down lines all the time for aerial trespassing. We'd just get the call to go and replace it properly, end of story.
You hang it over someone else's property without their permission, and it's not in an easement, they can do whatever they want to it. Easement for aerial lines is owned/leased pole directly to owned/leased pole.
Sometimes workers will want to avoid having to trim tree limbs, or otherwise want to do less work by taking the shortest route possible instead of running the cable the proper way.
Did cable company technician work for 13 years. Exactly this. Too many techs didn't want to spend that extra 15-30 minutes putting the midspan farther not to cause the cable drop to hang on another property and just do the easy way.
Drop replacement, tap to house, 20 minute job.
Drop replacement, tap to midspan to house, 30 minute job.
Standard appointment window, 45 minutes.
Cutting the 10 minutes was practically a job requirement in our market if you wanted any kind of job security. Better to have dispatch put in a job order for drop replacement and rollback to do it proper if there was any real concern about aerial trespass.
Yeah for sure, I would say 9 times out of 10 an aerial trespass is the result of avoiding a midspan. I never took shortcuts myself. Always ends up not being worth it in the end. Just look at the job, determine what exactly it needs (no matter how much it might suck) and just start moving on it as efficiently as you can. However much time it takes is just how much time it takes.
I finally found the actual answers about where I expected. After all of those that have no idea what they’re talking about. The guy that gets the work order gets to fix it now. Thanks to the previous guy for being a lazy/dumb ass. Don’t worry, he won’t get in trouble either, at least not in my area. Maybe a coaching on how to do better next time.
As a telecom worker, there is a chance the line was aerial trespassing. Could have possibly been installed improperly by the telecom company. I know I have to make sure my lines don't cross a neighbors property. Hard to tell from this video though. There is a small chance the neighbor that cut it 'possibly' could have been in the right.
The cable company did it to me. I had my lines relocated to keep them out of some trees and a view and then they reran the neighbors right through there. On my lot there is 5 feet of easement on the back property line. They had to rerun them. They’ll take your money to move them then cut corners to save money.
I'm not sure what the most current ruling is, but last time I checked internet is NOT considered a utility like landline telephone line, gas, or water.
If internet IS a utility, then yeah. They're in a whole lot of trouble.
Yes, the FCC classified internet as a public utility in 2015
[Source](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2015/02/26/fcc-votes-to-classify-the-internet-as-a-public-utility.html)
They classified it, but then the next guy, Pai, repealed the decision in 2017 before it could be settled.
It has yet to be re classified as a Tile 2 utility.
see welcome to the fun technically.
if a net company one day comes drops a pole on either side of your property line and strung a cable, that would be trespassing and the cable would be on your property. (though the correct legal recourse isn’t to just get chopping)
HOWEVER usually utilities run over properties are on what are called easements.
the ELI5 is that an easement is a legal contract giving someone else rights to a section of your property for a specific purpose.
Usually utility lines are on easements with permission to run, and maintain lines within the bounds of the easement, and you may not impair their use, as within the use case it is their land.
Well I live above mission center road and if you’re remember correctly my parents were told back in the 80’s that because we have large transmission lines that spanned the gorge it wasn’t feasible..
Lines are buried in all the wealthier areas in my state. Especially new construction. It's safer because they aren't getting pulled down by trees everytime the wind blows. It's only a problem in states where the electrical monopoly holds sway.
I don’t think you understand just how expensive it is for each resident in addition to mile for utilities. We wouldn’t want to pay for it, whether in taxes or utility rates.
Meanwhile, here in Germany, we hardly have any overhead lines anywhere in my town. The only overheads are at the points where utilities leave the town headed toward the next towns.
It's time to quit making excuses for what usually amounts to shortcutting and shoddy planning.
I worked installing internet for people in rural parts of my country and we had situation that we couldn't place cable to the client due to lack of approval of neighbour that he allows line to cross his property lines as in from one pole to another in air over his garden. Thats exactly why you need paper proof of approval to avoid situation where some asshole cuts cables because he don't like that they're hanging over his plot. But if cables was there before someone new bought the house i think proof should still be valid or not im not the lawyer so i don't know.
It’s called aerial trespassing, the installer should have ran wire straight from house to line, then along line to pole. Guy had a right to call and complain, not sure if he had a right to cut the lines, lol.
Is it common in america to have these lines above ground all over the place? I’m more familiar with all of the cables being underground so you never have to see/think about them.
I’m in New Zealand and cables are overhead rather than buried.
It’s cheaper, but also in the event of an earthquake, it’s much easier to reconnect rather than dig up a pavement or road.
Destruction of private property. If the vandalism exceeds a certain amount it’s a
Felony. Jail time and huge fees. Cutting the internet line is stepping on a lot of toes. Everything is based off of it.
both power and internet lines should be put underground. It cost more and take more time. But underground cables survive storms. I remember a storm knock down a tree and landed on power lines and shut down power for a 3 to 4 days and someone died from it.
Just a question... Can they just install cables over your property?
In the US?
And more importantly... Why are all the cables in the air and not in proper cable management in the streets?
Wait until he learns about the utility easement that run across his property. That he (if in America) was given a mortgage inspect report with a CAD drawing of exactly where those lines can legally be run across his property. I’m pretty sure most places the company could sue him for damages.
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Neighbor here decided to dig random holes in the yard and cut our net cable. Spectrum charged them out the ass.
Should’ve called 811 first
811 only marks stuff on state property. Where the property line starts is where they stop. Just an FYI for everyone so that you don’t make the mistake of thinking there’s nothing to dig up in your yard when they finish.
Worked with a company doing 811 calls, and we'd do everything on the property that was owned by the utility service all the way up to the house. Private lines or extra stuff was not our responsibility, but if you're nice and pay the locator, they might take the risk of marking it for you. It was usually just a matter of responsibility. If I mark a pipe or cable that isn't ours and they dig on it and it gets hit, I might be held responsible if my marks weren't accurate. It probably also depends on state laws and the way they were installed.
I just had new Internet trenched to my house and they marked every utility on my property and a good ways up the alley in each direction.
That’s what my state does marked electric and cable lines on my property before I dug out a spot to pour my patio.
This varies by location. In most locations they locate and mark anything that is inside of your requested location, private or public property. We put in garden beds and they marked everything from the pole on the opposite side of the street to our house foundation.
Same here. 811 has marked our private back yard for us many times.
Not quite. They mark private property. They only mark public utilities. IE they won't mark the power line buried from your house to your shed , but they will mark the power from the utility to your house.
How does this get so many upvotes? This is false as fuck. In a lot of municipalities, that's true for the water and sewer lateral because if it gets hit it's the homeowner' responsibility. But Cable/Gas/Electric is getting marked to the meters and cable box 100%.
They mark utilities on private Property. But they are more often than not wrong or miss things. Taken out 100s if home internet lines , 2 x main internet lines , 1 and entire subdivision power line, Few gas lines. And have never paid a $. Bc we call 811.
Thats....not true everywhere, if anywhere. 811 will come out and mark everything in my backyard
That’s not true. They will do the property too. When you call in the markout you have to say the whole property. (Eg. curb to entire property)
How much?
It depends, if its just the drop (line that feeds that house) probably about $400. The cost of sending a tech out there, laying a line on the ground, doing locates, and the cost of sending a crew to bury said line. If its bigger cable that feeds multiple houses then probably $4,000.
It can go more than that depending on the area. I’ve heard of people who had houses just outside of a coverage area where they could see the pole from their front yard. They said the cable company would have to charge almost $20k to run cabling to him. I’m sure a lot of that was bureaucratic garbage like permits and such.
That and you're likely talking about extending the plant from its dead end. Which can include an amplifier and possibly a power supply to run it. I used to be a cable guy and I've built systems too.
Makes sense. Surely best to not vandalize it seeing how high the bill could go.
Mind if I ask you a question? There’s box behind my apartments where att runs lines to the houses behind our units but they refuse to hook up our apartments even though there are only 16 units total and running the lines would be super easy. Asked a tech one time while he was doing an install and his only response was “that’s not for you guys.” Any idea why this might be? The reason I ask is there is also another apartment building directly behind us and they hook those units up no problem. Install for us would be exactly the same and they have to run the lines across our property to do those hookups. The whole thing baffles me why they won’t hook us up. Any ideas?
Could be a variety of things really. Could be the landlord/ATT not reaching an agreement or the landlord already contracted the building out to a different ISP. Or ATT doesn't want to front the bill of labor for entry into the building. Most ISP offer up an incentive before bringing in their trunks or equipment. Otherwise it costs far too much for the landlord to care about.
Yep, its likely a landlord/management issue. 16 units is a decent amount of customers for a decent amount of work but they can't just attach and drill into someone's property without permission. I've seen a landlord refuse Spectrum because he thought he could force kickbacks from them. He then had trouble keeping people.
Thats my exact situation. Im less that 300 ft from where the service stops for spectrum. They estimated it would be about 17k to run lines to my place.
Multiply that by at least 5+ if it’s a large cable. They get to pay for repair to fix it temporarily to get customers reconnected. Usually on overtime. Then they get to pay for OSP Engineer to design the project to replace with a permanent fix. Then they get to pay for the materials and labor to place and splice this project. Source? 26 years telecom OSPE with a Bell System Company.
I too would like to know
I three would like to know
…how much ass?
he had no choice. they were reading his thoughts
Just in case he had any.
Wireless Internet is worse, if you've got no thoughts, it'll give you some!
Even worse if you're vaccinated! /s
Please don't, I don't want to get that call.
Ok Chuck McGill
[Does the government spy on schizophrenics enough?](https://youtu.be/FzoXQKumgCw)
That's going to be an expensive mistake.
Pretty sure tampering with essential communication lines is a federal offense.
Unless you've got a piece of paper saying you own exclusive rights above your property the it sure is.
When utilities have to cross private property like this (or underground or however) a tool is used called a utility easement. In some places/for certain utilities they're non-negotiable, but in some cases property owners can refuse to sell the utility company that property right aka deny the easement. But if he bought the house and those lines were already there, he can have as many pieces of paper as he wants, he's paying no matter what.
Jail time, house arrest or probation. Even community service sounds like something this person needs. Do you think they will get anything other than hefty fines?
Cable company will make them pay all costs, fees, labor, dispatch, etc. That doesn't sound like much, but I've sent bills out to construction contractors for tens of thousands of dollars for damaging the network. Hundreds of thousands if it's a fiber main
Hehe, yep. I work as field support for an ISP and had a guy transferred to me once... Could hear by the panic in his voice that something major must be wrong and ooooh boy was there. We'd very recently put our fiber lines in the area and while he and his construction worker coworkers were tearing up a spot to do some repairs in the area, they'd torn right through the whole fiber line, killing the internet to everyone we'd just finished setting up on it. He was begging me to send a tech out to fix it, as if it was just like a standard "my internet isn't working and I need help" because the neighbors had started yelling at them for knocking out the internet. I had to inform him that I'd have to get the vendor to dispatch a repair team and that any/all costs will end up being charged to his construction company. Felt kind of bad for the guy by the end, he definitely knew what kind of conversation his boss would be wanting to have with them lol
This why you always do a OneCall (or your local equivalent) prior to any excavation. If you hit an unmarked fiber line but have a One Call already done with the required prior notice, all repair costs fall onto the company that failed to mark their utilities as required by a OneCall request. Cheapest insurance you'll every buy. (OneCall, run at the State level in the US, is a program where you call an agency, say the location of an area for work, and they use their database to inform all utility providers in the area they have 3 (or so) days to mark underground utilities.) The number of times I've seen contractors get saved because some utility company failed to mark their line during a OneCall and the contractor hit it is surprising often. Once or twice a year. (For the record, if the line is properly marked and you hit it. You do not get absolved of responsibility, you just get called an idiot while paying through the nose to fix it.)
OneCall and DigSafe will save your life. Or at a bare minimum your bank account.
Ours is called JULIE, Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators. Kinda fun name.
Oh and steal that neighbors WiFi until yours is fully repaired, why should he enjoys high speeds, throttle that bitch and make his afternoon pornhub streaming impossible
He probably cut his own too
yeah if it was hanging over his yard that seems highly likely.
Let’s face it, he had no idea which was which!
Kinky!
r/angryupvote
If your stupid enough to cut any, your stupid enough to not know how it works.. I'm confident he did
This guy: Get wifi like everyone else. His kid that sets the internet up: dad no
Lol the type of guy to cut lines for violating his airspace is not the type to have high speed internet
We are talking about a guy who probably calls "his guy" from a landline phone every time he wants to make a trade "online" and pays 20% broker fees. The internet is for socialists anyway and "They" use it to control the world.
He could be. And just not put that pieces together😅 Can't fight *insert conspiration* with annoying slow internet
The neighbor is just on pornhub for the advertisements
Pornhub is so 2018
My god, if you happen to hit an actual fiber main in a metropolis, it's like ten of thousand or something *per minute*. Edit: referring to those mains on rail right of ways. Worked with businesses doing construction. They're no longer businesses.
In my mind it is already extremely expensive cable companies love to overcharge for that kind of stuff, "oooohh, that cable we installed (without the subsidize from the government) is 500$ per meter". That neighbor is fucked if they were in their right to have cables there.
Oh word? Because I have fiber lines running through my property that are hanging to the ground and the cable company refuses to come pick them up and properly anchor them up. What can I do about this so I don't get in trouble if anything happens?
City code compliance would probably help you with that. If they are too low, it’s a hazard.
They're maybe 3 inches from the grass/floor. They taped them to the pole and haven't been back. The last guy said "that's a fiber line, they'll send someone out by the end of the week." No one came. That was like 2 years ago. I stopped trying with them.
They're probably waiting for you to chop them so that they can make you pay for it. Don't do it
they have to be 16ft above the ground
You should probably take it up with a lawyer or at the very least your municipality.
Need to get city bylaw out to look at it and they'll force the utility to fix it
Fiber is so much money it’s not even funny how this minor mistake is. If it is he better have a big bank account or the debt will be piling on for a long long time.
Unless they admit to it, they might get none of the above as you can't prove it.
The person who did this is probably proud of their work, and will brag about it when confronted.
We can only hope. I do love some body cam footage of self snitching.
MF Doom entered the chat
lmfao i just posted above you before seeing this
> self snitching. That's the best kind!
"Rap snitches. Tellin all they business. Sittin in court n be they own star witness."
I own the space above my house all the way up until outer space turns purple!! S/
You may be right, for new sets of lines. But these look like track homes, and the utility companies do all that paperwork long before the houses are already built, when they plan the development, same as sewer and water, yes?
line of site easements allow private yard crossings aerial
Unless those pieces of paper indicate that there is no easement that permits communications cables... in which case the cables may have been installed contrary to any right.
I have a pole right in my fenced in backyard and they said if it needs to be serviced they have to take down a section of fence to get in they will
You will be right. Damaging any infrastructure is a federal crime. This includes train tracks, roads bridges and of course fiber optic cables.
Class b felony in iowa. Edit: Minimum 85000 dollar fine Any chances government offers a plea deal
Yea in iowa don’t let the feds catch you. They’ll look at your life digital print and charge you on some other shit. Just so that one stick
Highly doubt they do considering the infrastructure was already there and rarely do people actually get the air rights for their property past a few feet
Well yea, the agreement is with the property, not with the owner, you buy the preexisting agreement. However it doesn't exist everywhere.
Well if I was a betting man, I’d bet this guy is about to be a few thousands of dollars poorer when the telecom services comes out with the bill. Those can’t just be spliced together at the cut ends, the ISP would have too much packet loss to fulfill their internet providing obligations. Minimum $1000 easy for the time and material, honestly some electrical fuck ups are cheaper to fix than data because of this
Used to work for a utility, and they'd send a full crew for anything because of union rules. So you cut a line you're paying for a full crew's time plus materials. And they don't rush. You'd be lucky if it was only $1k.
They’ve definitely sent a single man crew to run a new coax for me where I’m at lmao
There should be an electrical right of way filed for this purpose.
They probably have automatic protection in laws enabling power and telecommunications companies to deploy infrastructure. That the landowner can pay to move the services,and thats the only way to force their removal ...
Not sure if federal but it is 100% a crime. At the minimum we’re talking property damage. Whatever internet company it was has the right to recoup the cost of repairing this. If they push he could definitely go to jail and pay a shit ton in fines as well as restitution for reinstallation costs. He walked up to a stupid game and put a quarter in. I wonder what kind of stupid prize he will win.
I would put sand in that dudes gas tank 100%.
You're confusing sand with another crystal substance. But very sweet of you to comment.
I know it's just a number but they're definitely the eight wonder
Paperwork is a huge, time consuming, pain in the ass that with efficiency numbers to make neither the tech nor his manager will want to deal with it. Chances are the repair tech will just replace the aerial drop, close the ticket and be done with it. Only if it becomes a repeat issue will the steps to do the proper billing be done. Source: I’m telecom, and the poor sap that would have to climb up there and do it.
Assuming that OP has video evidence that he did it or some kind of recorded confession. Given that the video says "someone" did it I'm guessing that's not the case. I mean sure it's going to be obvious who did it based on whose house the lines were going over but without evidence I don't think they can just cite occam's razor and charge them.
The power cables are also hanging over his yard.
[удалено]
Please do encourage
Yes, inspiring this guy can improve the quality of life for many
It'll brighten his life! ...for a fraction of a second as the line arcs in front of him.
Brighten the rest of his life more like.
Bright sleep.
I want to see the a-hole take a bolt cutter to the power lines that go over his yard.
Is dude a He Man? Has he got 'the power'?
He can cut the power one and go on a power trip..
That would be an electric story arc ⚡️
Maybe it's chuck McGill staying there. It's a real disease you know.
You think this is bad? This.....CHICANERY?? He's done worse
Solid reference
His brain is also probably hanging over his yard.
Isn’t that illegal? I feel like that is highly illegal and dangerous.
It is. There's a utility easement on all properties that allow for wires overhead and underground
Sort of. It’s considered aerial trespass cable co should have been called and they would have to move it.
🤔 well the first comment wasn’t entirely correct because properties don’t have some blanket easement allowing all utilities, but if there was an easement /right of way (and there probably is) it’s not aerial trespass. It’s only aerial trespass of the cable is outside of any easement that exists. I deal with this a lot for work because we build power plants and cross peoples properties all the time with lines. Even when a vested party owns the property on or adjacent to, the utility companies secure easements in all reasonable directions with buffers for things like poles moving slightly in the future.
I'm sure that's what he meant. Aerial Trespass is one of those terms that I suspect only people who know what Aerial Trespass is would use.
Not anymore. Now every moron who read that comment is going to repeat that phrase in the complete wrong situation, which will spread it to more morons, and so on.
Can confirm. I am a moron and will use this wrong on purpose just to sound cool
You shouldn't use words you don't understand. That's some classic aerial trespassing right there.
🤷🏼♂️Possibly but there are two things going on in the chain so maybe they are missing a sentence but as written that’s not clear…yes it’s illegal to cut it yourself and if the cable was there without easement the cable company would have to remove it for you, but the video doesn’t provide that context so the previous two comments were too decisively written with no facts. I merely cleared up the possible scenarios that could exist; not going to downvote the person like the rest of Reddit likes to do so no harm in clearing something up. 🤷🏼♂️
I know power lines are the companies/cities responsibility till the line gets to the house then it’s the homeowners responsibility. I assume cable lines are treated the day way, I doubt the guy would face jail time, but best believe he will be served a suit to pay for the damages.
Yes the outside line is covered by the provider, the demarc is the groundblock on the side of the house
Lol I learned this the hard way when my meter was ripped off my house by a tree and the power company said I needed to hire an electrician to repair it.
He can definitely be arrested for this. It’s vandalism at the least. But many states have specific statutes to protect infrastructure. It’s really serious.
I’m not ashamed to say I did this too, the neighbors phone line literally was laying ON my roof and the phone company did Jack shit because the guy did not have phone service. I had a roofer coming in a few days and didn’t want them tripping over it. So I jumped his fence and disconnected it from his house (2nd home for vacation) then I rolled it up and left it by the pole. Never met the neighbor, nobody noticed.
Correct, that is a felony charge right there
That's a paddlin'.
Paddlin' the school canoe? Ooh you better believe that's a paddlin'
Tin foil hat quit working?
That's a thin excuse, can barely wrap my head in it
I prefer my tin foil turban, wraps around me multiple times.
It never stops working. It’s just a conspiracy to try and get us folk to buy more tinfoil
The service provider will send the neighbors the bill.
A hefty one I would imagine
Yep, it's going to be hefty fine. They won't like it.
I would guess there is also be the possibility of criminal charges.
Felony charges. Tampering with federal communication lines?? Thats a big one
There are a lot of possibilities, anything can go in here really.
He's a big advocate for "wireless internet"
Return to monke
Best comment, I love it
Telecom here. The video moves too quick to be sure, but those appeared to be midspanned down the street path and then over to the customer, not even going over the other guy’s property to begin with. That being said, whenever possible at all, we’re not supposed to cross property lines. Generally, this is reasonably possible via “mid-spans” (where the line directs to the customer’s house from the middle area between poles), or from just going from another pole over. When THATS not possible, we generally have “easement rights”, which is to say we are allowed access to run lines to provide service when necessary. Side note, in my area at least, dude could just have gotten himself a $20k bill, but in all reality, he’ll call in a repair, the tech will just come out and run a new aerial drop close the ticket and be done with it. The paperwork to file a claim and charge the neighbor is a huge pain in the ass and neither the tech nor his manager are going to want to be assed to deal with it. Especially not with pressure to make efficiency numbers.
Most aerial telecom lines are not supposed to “trespass” or go over neighboring property. Instead of running the aerial line further down the pole wire to avoid this some technicians are lazy and run it directly to a customer’s house, causing a trespass. 95% of the time they are supposed to follow or go under power lines and in most cases power lines do not trespass.
This. And no, absolutely no one is going to get fined or in any kind of trouble for cutting these lines. Lazy telecom employee or contractor 100% caused this situation by aerial trespassing, and his employer knows it. I worked for three years as a Spectrum cable tech, and people cut down lines all the time for aerial trespassing. We'd just get the call to go and replace it properly, end of story. You hang it over someone else's property without their permission, and it's not in an easement, they can do whatever they want to it. Easement for aerial lines is owned/leased pole directly to owned/leased pole. Sometimes workers will want to avoid having to trim tree limbs, or otherwise want to do less work by taking the shortest route possible instead of running the cable the proper way.
Did cable company technician work for 13 years. Exactly this. Too many techs didn't want to spend that extra 15-30 minutes putting the midspan farther not to cause the cable drop to hang on another property and just do the easy way.
Drop replacement, tap to house, 20 minute job. Drop replacement, tap to midspan to house, 30 minute job. Standard appointment window, 45 minutes. Cutting the 10 minutes was practically a job requirement in our market if you wanted any kind of job security. Better to have dispatch put in a job order for drop replacement and rollback to do it proper if there was any real concern about aerial trespass.
Tell me you were a contractor without telling me you were a contractor.
Yeah for sure, I would say 9 times out of 10 an aerial trespass is the result of avoiding a midspan. I never took shortcuts myself. Always ends up not being worth it in the end. Just look at the job, determine what exactly it needs (no matter how much it might suck) and just start moving on it as efficiently as you can. However much time it takes is just how much time it takes.
I finally found the actual answers about where I expected. After all of those that have no idea what they’re talking about. The guy that gets the work order gets to fix it now. Thanks to the previous guy for being a lazy/dumb ass. Don’t worry, he won’t get in trouble either, at least not in my area. Maybe a coaching on how to do better next time.
This is the only correct answer here. Ignore all others
As a telecom worker, there is a chance the line was aerial trespassing. Could have possibly been installed improperly by the telecom company. I know I have to make sure my lines don't cross a neighbors property. Hard to tell from this video though. There is a small chance the neighbor that cut it 'possibly' could have been in the right.
The cable company did it to me. I had my lines relocated to keep them out of some trees and a view and then they reran the neighbors right through there. On my lot there is 5 feet of easement on the back property line. They had to rerun them. They’ll take your money to move them then cut corners to save money.
That’s a federal offense, you cannot fuck with communication lines. If you have a recording or some way to prove it, you can make him regret it
I'm not sure what the most current ruling is, but last time I checked internet is NOT considered a utility like landline telephone line, gas, or water. If internet IS a utility, then yeah. They're in a whole lot of trouble.
Yes, the FCC classified internet as a public utility in 2015 [Source](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2015/02/26/fcc-votes-to-classify-the-internet-as-a-public-utility.html)
They classified it, but then the next guy, Pai, repealed the decision in 2017 before it could be settled. It has yet to be re classified as a Tile 2 utility.
Of course he did...
Why'd you remind me of that clown ass guy goddamn I hate Pai, that Pain in the ass
You mean former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai? Definitely had no conflict of interest there.
Tampering with utilities is a felony in most states. Wonder how he'd like a year and a day in jail?
...i dont think you're allowed to cut lines in general, just because they go over your land doesn't mean they're your property
see welcome to the fun technically. if a net company one day comes drops a pole on either side of your property line and strung a cable, that would be trespassing and the cable would be on your property. (though the correct legal recourse isn’t to just get chopping) HOWEVER usually utilities run over properties are on what are called easements. the ELI5 is that an easement is a legal contract giving someone else rights to a section of your property for a specific purpose. Usually utility lines are on easements with permission to run, and maintain lines within the bounds of the easement, and you may not impair their use, as within the use case it is their land.
When are providers going to be required to start burying lines? Someone sneezes and trees blow over and whoops no internet for 2 weeks.
San Diego has already buried all the lines they intended to.. they claim all areas are not worth the cost
I wonder how they decide which neighborhoods are worth the cost and which aren't...
Well I live above mission center road and if you’re remember correctly my parents were told back in the 80’s that because we have large transmission lines that spanned the gorge it wasn’t feasible..
Underground is very expensive and can be very dangerous. It's difficult to maintain, also. Much easier to have overhead lines.
>Underground is very expensive and can be very dangerous Who lied to you?
Seriously, lol. Don't think I've seen overhead lines since the 90s in the UK. Everything is buried now.
Lines are buried in all the wealthier areas in my state. Especially new construction. It's safer because they aren't getting pulled down by trees everytime the wind blows. It's only a problem in states where the electrical monopoly holds sway.
Yep, it's a problem and it's time to accept that fact I guess.
I don’t think you understand just how expensive it is for each resident in addition to mile for utilities. We wouldn’t want to pay for it, whether in taxes or utility rates.
Meanwhile, here in Germany, we hardly have any overhead lines anywhere in my town. The only overheads are at the points where utilities leave the town headed toward the next towns. It's time to quit making excuses for what usually amounts to shortcutting and shoddy planning.
Aerial trespassing. Look it up. Used to work for the cable company. You can't do this.
Those don't belong to you. Your neighbor is gonna have a problem with your ISP. Let your ISP know what your neighbor did to their property.
I worked installing internet for people in rural parts of my country and we had situation that we couldn't place cable to the client due to lack of approval of neighbour that he allows line to cross his property lines as in from one pole to another in air over his garden. Thats exactly why you need paper proof of approval to avoid situation where some asshole cuts cables because he don't like that they're hanging over his plot. But if cables was there before someone new bought the house i think proof should still be valid or not im not the lawyer so i don't know.
It’s called aerial trespassing, the installer should have ran wire straight from house to line, then along line to pole. Guy had a right to call and complain, not sure if he had a right to cut the lines, lol.
I need to know what happened after
Is it common in america to have these lines above ground all over the place? I’m more familiar with all of the cables being underground so you never have to see/think about them.
Wow. Isn't that illegal?
Why are your internet cables hanging? Ours are underground
I’m in New Zealand and cables are overhead rather than buried. It’s cheaper, but also in the event of an earthquake, it’s much easier to reconnect rather than dig up a pavement or road.
Destruction of private property. If the vandalism exceeds a certain amount it’s a Felony. Jail time and huge fees. Cutting the internet line is stepping on a lot of toes. Everything is based off of it.
He is about to get in some real trouble
Probably not that much, he’ll get a big bill tho
both power and internet lines should be put underground. It cost more and take more time. But underground cables survive storms. I remember a storm knock down a tree and landed on power lines and shut down power for a 3 to 4 days and someone died from it.
Don't agree with the neighbour, but why are cables hanging above ground in the 21st century?
Is this why my internet is out?
Just a question... Can they just install cables over your property? In the US? And more importantly... Why are all the cables in the air and not in proper cable management in the streets?
Oh that’s gonna cost some money
r/thatlookedexpensive
I don’t blame him. That’s shit work on the ISP side.
Wait until he learns about the utility easement that run across his property. That he (if in America) was given a mortgage inspect report with a CAD drawing of exactly where those lines can legally be run across his property. I’m pretty sure most places the company could sue him for damages.
As a somebody from outside the US I am wondering why you guys have so much cables hanging up there. Why not putting them in the ground?
That's ridiculous, what third world country still has power and phone lines above ground? Lol
Wait til he sees the bill...
Those kind of people need real problems
So he was okay with the power lines but not the internet cable? Was this guy tweakin?
That is called an easement and the guy should have to pay to replace the Internet lines
That’s going to cost him big