David Steadman Arrested in $1,000 Copper Theft That Cut Service to 18,000 Optimum Customers
Updated
Updated · WCHS Network · Jul 30
David Steadman Arrested in $1,000 Copper Theft That Cut Service to 18,000 Optimum Customers
3 articles · Updated · WCHS Network · Jul 30
Summary
Kanawha County deputies arrested David Steadman, 48, after accusing him of stealing $1,000 in copper wire from an Optimum facility in St. Albans, triggering a broad internet and phone outage.
Surveillance footage showed two men with T-shirts over their heads cutting wire at the site last Friday, and deputies said Steadman tried to flee when officers found him.
Steadman was charged with grand larceny, breaking and entering, destruction of property and endangering public safety in the Optimum case; he also faces separate breaking-and-entering and larceny charges tied to Peerless Block & Brick.
Authorities said Steadman was already wanted on a felony robbery warrant issued May 22, and he is being held at South Central Regional Jail on $50,000 and $20,000 bail.