Bullet Disrupts Cable TV Service
Agunshot hit a fiber-optic cable and disrupted service to about 50,000 United Cable television customers in the eastern San Fernando Valley for much of this past weekend, a company official said.
Kris Cook, marketing director, said a bullet from a .22-caliber weapon hit the cable at a major North Hollywood intersection about midnight Saturday night, knocking out some channels. Cook said the gunshot, which is believed to have been random rather than a deliberate act of vandalism, struck a 3-inch bundle of cables that included the fiber-optic cable.
She declined to reveal the location.
Company technicians located the damaged cable about 2 p.m. Sunday, but waited until midnight to begin repairs. The repairs, which continued until about 5 p.m. Monday, blacked out all channels except local access channels, Cook said.
Cook said customers will automatically receive a credit on their bills for the time they were without service. She said the credits and the repairs will cost the company more than $100,000.
United Cable has about 65,000 customers in the East Valley, north of Ventura Boulevard to the Los Angeles city boundary.
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