Cumberland County RCMP are asking for the public’s help as they investigate recent incidents involving theft of copper wire.
Mounties said they received reports of two thefts on Monday as officers learned cable was stolen near Thomson Road in Wallace Bay. The second theft involved 50 to 100 feet of copper wire being stolen near Kolbec Road in Kolbec.
Then on Tuesday, police received another report of damage to cables off Hansford Road in Hansford where the lines were cut but not stolen.
According to RCMP, property crime involving things like power and phone lines often causes outages and disruptions in internet and phone service. All three incidents led to disruptions for people.
This comes after a recent incident in New Brunswick where police seized 90 kilograms of copper wire and charged three people with theft of property over $5,000.
Increase in thefts across Atlantic Canada
There has been a surge in copper wire thefts across the country as Bell logged 1,275 incidents related to thefts of the metal from its network in 2025.
Rogers said the total number of outage hours related to vandalism in its networks, which includes attempted copper thefts, has increased by 400 per cent since 2022.
It pushed an Ontario MP to push for a crackdown on scrap yards that buy stolen copper wire. She introduced a private member’s bill in the House of Commons that would make it a crime for scrap metal dealers to trade, traffic or have for sale any scrap metal that was known to be stolen, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and a jail sentence of up to two years.
In Nova Scotia, dealers are not required to ask anyone trying to sell copper for identification, contrary to laws in New Brunswick.
Rogers is the parent company of CityNews Halifax.
With files from Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press.