Deputies say enough is enough
“We can’t keep them in jail, but we can put them in jail.” —Chief Deputy Sheriff Chris Kidd
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
BEAUTY — Thieves hit Gordon Hollow in the early hours of Sunday morning, slicing through a main Optimum cable and an AT&T phone line between 3 and 4 a.m., leaving thousands without service and one very frustrated sheriff’s department.
“It looked like they cut approximately 200 feet of fiber, which has no scrap value whatsoever,” said Special Deputy J.C. Kirk, who responded to the scene after residents noticed the damage around 10 a.m. “They also cut about 200 feet of AT&T phone line.”
The suspect reportedly abandoned their tools at the scene—snips, a janky step ladder, and a blue University of Kentucky ballcap.
“They rigged a broken step ladder to get up high enough,” Kirk said.
The public’s patience has grown thin and the sheriff’s office has had enough.
“We’re tired of this,” Deputy Kirk said. “I don’t know who they’re selling it to or if it’s the same person every time. But if you know this person has been in the newspaper for copper theft, you should not be buying copper from him anymore, in my opinion.”
Chief Deputy Chris Kidd echoed the frustration.
“We know the citizens of Martin County are fed up with not having communications, not being able to call 911,” Kidd said. “We urge anyone who sees anything suspicious—ladders on poles, ladders on lines, someone walking around phone lines at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning who has no reason to be there, that they call us immediately. We will do everything we can to arrest them. We can’t keep them in jail, but we can put them in jail.”
