Phone Company Theft Cuts Off Service
About 75,000 customers were left without phone service for several hours Sunday when three men wearing ski masks broke into a Sprint telephone office and stole computer equipment.
The men tied up two Sprint employees and a contractor, then shot them with stun guns, said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman Steve Meriwether. The three were not seriously injured.
Sprint spokeswoman Detra Page said the thieves took telephone-related computer equipment that was in use at the time, knocking out service to 75,000 customers. Sprint has 845,000 customers in the Las Vegas Valley, she said.
The incident occurred about 8 a.m., and service was restored to all customers by about 3 p.m., she said.
Meriwether said the thieves used an acetylene torch to try to cut through a side door to the sprawling building, at a busy intersection on the city’s southwest side. Unable to cut their way through the side door, they forced their way through the front door, Meriwether said.
Police have no suspects in the robbery, Meriwether said. He said the thieves obviously had a working knowledge of the equipment that was stolen.
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