Lincolnshire police looking for cable thieves

Lincolnshire police are searching for whoever stole about $10,000 worth of communication cable that had been installed in an underground duct at a Half Day Road construction site.

Sgt. John Kleffner said the thief or group of thieves pulled into the construction site at some point before Aug. 10 and yanked the telephone cable from large pipes buried under the roadway. The bundle included copper wiring, officials said.

"It took some effort to pull that cabling out," Kleffner said. "The construction company said the cable was completely installed and waiting to be hooked up, but the thieves came in and yanked out the entire cable and took off."

The construction site was just off Half Day Road, he said, and the robbery could have happened during the day while motorists were driving past.

"People could have thought the group were construction workers at the site when they were actually stealing the cable," he said.

The retail cost of the cable is about $10,000, Kleffner said, but the resale of the copper cable will be for pennies on the dollar.

"The cable stolen had other different types of cable mixed in with the copper," he said. "It's very expensive hardware because it's not only copper. The copper has value, yes, but it's the other cables that make it expensive."

He said police are investigating but have no leads. Anyone with information is urged to call the Lincolnshire Police Department at (847) 883-9900.