Verizon has lost multiple fiber cables to vandalism in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California over the past several days. It knocked thousands of customers offline and disrupted critical communications.
The company says California had 6,297 cable vandalism attacks in 2025, including 1,131 in Los Angeles, with the resulting outages causing an estimated $252.6 million in economic losses.
In an effort to curb the vandalism, the wireless carrier is now offering a reward to anyone who catches the culprits.
Verizon is just one of many victims
In a new blog post, Verizon has announced a reward. You'll get $25,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of people vandalising its structures.
The carrier revealed that the damage can affect emergency services, healthcare, businesses, and ordinary customers, while also putting the people cutting the cables at risk.
It's likely a case of mistaken material targeting, as companies and utilities have reported similar acts by thieves seeking copper or scrap metal in exposed wiring.
Spectrum, a major American telecommunications company, suffered a similar cable-cutting incident in Los Angeles in June 2025, where 13 cables and over 2,600 individual fibers were severed in Van Nuys.
It described the incident as an act of domestic terrorism, though the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) pushed back on the allegations, confirming it was being investigated as felony vandalism rather than domestic terrorism.
Regardless, it's vandalism with no material payoff, because fiber-optic cables are made primarily of plastic and glass. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman confirmed this at a news conference, noting that copper thieves thought the cables contained something valuable.
Assemblyman Mark González, who drafted a bill requiring a state license to resell copper wire and other recyclable materials, said the city has gone “dark” since the rise of copper wire theft, adding that Californians are tired of paying the price for theft that also steals safety and community.
How to report vandalism to Verizon
If you do see someone cutting or tampering with Verizon's cables, you might want to get somewhere safe first, then call 911. Someone vandalizing infrastructure may not have a friendly welcome waiting for you if they realize you're watching or recording them.
Report the incident to Verizon's Security department at 1-800-997-3287. Again, it's worth clarifying that the $25,000 reward is specifically for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the people responsible. So, reporting suspicious activity is not enough.
For certain, Verizon isn't letting the culprits off easy. Of course, it's also a criminal act. Federally, damaging communications infrastructure can carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison. If the damage is deemed to affect national security or emergency services, charges can escalate further.
At the state level in California, it typically falls under felony vandalism, which can carry sentences of up to three years in state prison depending on the extent of the damage, plus restitution payments to cover repair costs.
