DelDOT The Victim In Criminal Mischief Case In Bear

Location: Route 896 and Howell School Road, Bear, Delaware, New Castle County

Date and Time: Monday, October 26, 2009, at 1:45 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. respectively

Suspect(s): Unknown

Resume: The Delaware State Police needs the publics’ help with this one…

Yesterday afternoon, at 1:45 p.m., DelDOT technicians received a failure notification from the fiber optic cable lines located at Route 896 and Howell School Road. This disabled DelDOT’s ability to communicate with the traffic signals in the area.

While officials were sorting this issue out, around 3:00 p.m., another failure was received from this same location. This time, the signal was triggered by a power failure.

Officials responded to the scene and found that someone has purposely cut a fiber optic cable and power lines. Both of these severed lines are located underground and were accessed, by the suspect, via lifting a ground level concrete cover.

The damaged fiber optic cable was located at the intersection. Because of its diameter, the person who cut it had to use an industrial sized tool. The power line was located approximately 70’ away from the intersection. Because it was smaller, a smaller tool could have been used to sever it.

The damage has been estimated at approximately $8,000.00. Signals in the area were out of commission for several hours while the damage was repaired. No traffic crashes were reported in the area at this time.

Senior Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh says, “This was a deliberate act by someone who not only damaged DelDOT property, buy who also put lives in danger when the traffic signals went down without warning.”

There is no suspect information at this time. Anyone with details pertaining to this case is asked to call Troop 9 at 302.378.5218 or Crime Stoppers at 1.800.TIP.3333.