Wire theft on St. Paul’s East Side has left hundreds of homes without access to their land line phone service for nearly two weeks.

On Oct. 24, a Lumen/CenturyLink employee reported to St. Paul Police that someone had tampered with a manhole cover and snatched underground wires, causing an estimated $50,000 in damages. The wire theft from the 1700 block of Minnehaha Avenue East by Flandrau Street — west of the White Bear and Minnehaha intersection — has had repercussions far beyond the work site. Since then, more than 600 homes near the Eastview neighborhood north of Harding High School have been without landline telephone service.

St. Paul Police said last Friday the investigation was ongoing and no arrests have been made. Efforts to restore phone service have been slow going. Residents have complained to police, the media, City Hall and anyone else they can think of, with some blaming construction at the burgeoning development known as The Heights, the site of the former Hillcrest Golf Club off Ivy Avenue.

The St. Paul Port Authority — the landowner and master developer at The Heights — included some clarifying remarks in its newsletter on Friday, Nov. 1 but urged residents to contact Lumen/CenturyLink directly.

“The outage is unrelated to our project,” reads the newsletter. “The outage was caused by damaged cables near the Eastview neighborhood. CenturyLink is aware and working to remedy the issue.”

Online outage map

Lumen/CenturyLink maintains an online outage map that allows customers to check on expected repair times for their account, but has otherwise sent no official updates to residents.

Cheryl Hanzlik, who lives within a block of The Heights development, said last week she recently reached out to the Port Authority with her concerns, “assuming that it was caused by something they did up there.” Not long after, a contractor working on a sewer line came to her door with a situation update.

“He is the one who told us about the wire theft on Minnehaha and that it isn’t going to be a quick fix because there are thousands of wires that need to be spliced together to get phone service restored to about 650 residents,” Hanzlik said. “I’ve tried to get a real person to talk to at CenturyLink, but can only get an online chat with people who clearly aren’t from the U.S. who keep pushing back the restore date.”

“We have cell phones so we are still able to connect with 911 if we should need to, but there are several elderly people on our block and probably many others amongst the 650 residents impacted who do not own cell phones,” she added. “I worry for their safety. … To some people, this is not a big deal because they never had a landline, but to others, this is their only means of communication with the outside world.”

A pressing issue

Wire theft from street lights in particular has been a pressing issue for St. Paul, leaving long swathes of the city drenched in darkness, from streets and sidewalks to parks and playgrounds. Other forms of technology — from phone services and traffic signals to air conditioning units — have also been targets for brazen thieves looking for metal to trade for quick cash.

Engineers with Bolton and Menk have been working with the Port Authority to open up dead-end roads and create through-streets to The Heights development, which has led to some confusion, said Todd Hurley, president and chief executive officer of the Port Authority, on Monday.

The telephone outage “has nothing to do with what we have going on at The Heights,” Hurley said. “The wires were pulled down a mile and a half away (from our project). People see that the roads are open, and they think it has something to do with that, and it doesn’t.”

On Monday, a Florida-based spokesperson for Lumen responded to a reporter’s phone and email inquiries by issuing an unsigned statement by email. The statement gave no exact indication as to when the more than 600 landline accounts would be restored.

“We know how essential our network services are to customers, and our techs are working diligently to restore phone services to all customers,” reads the statement. “We’ve identified the cause as copper theft and are also working closely with local law enforcement to address this issue. Due to the scope of the damage and physical requirements to complete restoration, we must address each line individually. We appreciate our customers’ patience.”

Hanzlik, who said her Internet connection has been unaffected, said she had also reached out by email to her city council member, county commissioner and the mayor’s office but had yet to hear back.

“I haven’t heard a peep from any of them,” she said. “The least CenturyLink could do is send out a letter, but we’ve heard absolutely nothing.”

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