A series of apparent acts of vandalism in Lee County have left thousands of residents temporarily without phone service. Since mid-April a number of Sprint fiber-optic cables in North Fort Myers and South Fort Myers have been cut. Service to several thousand Sprint customers was affected… including on one occasion Lee Memorial Hospital, and the Lee County Justice Center.
Coordinator for southwest Florida Crimestoppers - Trish Route – says it appears they are deliberate acts of vandalism.

“This wasn’t an accident where a construction crew could’ve cut through the fiber optic cables…the person who did this knew what they were doing…it wasn’t like you or I could go in there and oops, cut a fiber optic cable. This was something where somebody clearly had intent and followed through…and as a result of their actions a lot of people went without phone service for a while.”

Route says it’s believed the same person or persons is behind the vandalism. Sprint is offering up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of the persons responsible for the outages. Anyone with information should call 1-800-780-TIPS…callers will remain anonymous.