3,500 Comcast customers without service after box vandalized

A few thousand Comcast customers are without service right now, after someone vandalized a service box in Federal Way.

KIRO 7's Jeff Dubois went to Panther Lake, where people started calling to complain around 5 a.m. on Wednesday.

When Comcast started getting calls, it pinpointed the problem to a service box just east of Panther Lake in Federal Way.

When technicians came out, it was easy to see what had happened: Someone had broken into the box and used wire cutters to snip the fiber-optic lines.

Doing so cut service to roughly 3,500 customers in the neighborhoods to the south, east and west of Panther Lake.

Comcast officials think the culprit may have been looking for copper wire to steal, but upon discovering it was fiber-optic line, the vandal just left.

Comcast said in a statement, "As splicers work to reconnect the individual fiber optic strands this morning, we are working to restore these neighborhoods as quickly as we can. We appreciate the patience of our customers."

Comcast hopes for service to be restored on Wednesday afternoon.

Cox Media Group