Police Investigating Damage To Fiber Optic Lines In Norwalk: PD

NORWALK, CT — Police are investigating a report of possibly intentionally damaged fiber optic lines in Norwalk as thousands of Optimum customers throughout Fairfield County are without service Friday due to "suspected vandalism."

In an email to Patch, Police Lt. Joe Dinho said Norwalk police received a call from an Optimum employee Friday morning reporting damage to some fiber optic lines, which the employee believed was intentional.

Dinho said police detectives are investigating the incident and noted no further information is available at this time.

A suspected vandal is believed to have deliberately cut Optimum fiber internet cables on Friday, an act which has caused a disruption in service to thousands of Fairfield County customers that could last into Saturday, according to company officials.

See also: 'Suspected Vandalism' Shuts Down Optimum Internet In Fairfield County

It is unclear if the report of possibly intentionally damaged fiber optic lines in Norwalk is directly related to the disruption of service throughout Fairfield County.

"Due to a fiber cut caused by suspected vandalism, some Optimum customers in Fairfield County, CT are experiencing a service interruption," the company posted on Facebook. "Our Optimum teams are onsite repairing the extensive damage, which may cause service interruptions into Saturday. We appreciate your patience. For updates, visit optimum.net."

In an email to Patch on Friday afternoon, company spokesperson Janet Meahan said around 16,000 customers were affected by the outage.

"In addition, our crews are making progress and several thousand customers have had their service restored recently," Meahan said. "Restoration efforts will continue until all customers are back online."

Patch editor Alfred Branch contributed to this story.