Copper thieves strike in Barrington

SOME residents of a Cambridgeshire Village are without phone and internet for a fourth consecutive day this week after copper cable was stolen from an exchange box.

Cambridgeshire police received reports of stolen cable in Barrington on Monday (15), and an investigation revealed that over 200 meters’ worth had been taken from an exchange box.

It is suspected that offenders broke into the box, while a man-hole cover was also open.

BT received over 100 faults from the village between Monday and Tuesday, and although some residents have had their phone and internet reconnected, many have not.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Oak pub in the village confirmed that they had still not been reconnected since the theft.

“Some of the people have it back but I am afraid we are still waiting for the connection, so there has been no phone or internet for going on four days.

“We are a business, so obviously it’s affected us terribly. At the moment we are using mobiles but we have very bad signal here so could be missing calls.

“We cannot reply to emails or phone calls from suppliers or customers so we need it back on as soon as possible.”

Tony Fletcher, chairman of Barrington Parish Council, said: “Fortunately ours has now been reconnected but our phone and broadband was down for a couple of days. It came back on at about 10.30am on Tuesday.

“The shop couldn’t process credit cards and most importantly older people couldn’t make phone calls in case of an emergency.”

Copper cable theft has become an increasingly frequent crime in recent years, with prices between �6 and �3 per kilo.

Anyone with more information should contact Cambridgeshire police on 0345 456 4564.