The El Dorado Police Department on Tuesday announced that an individual has been arrested and charged in relation to Monday's widespread Internet outage.
More than 6,200 Optimum customers were without service on Monday after someone allegedly cut a length of fiber optic Internet cable from elevated power poles along 19th Street. The outage continued until the very early hours of Tuesday morning.
Two Optimum workers told a News-Times reporter on Monday that someone cut the fiber cable just outside the Country Club Colony neighborhood around 3 a.m. Monday.
Eric Smyth, Altice USA communications director, confirmed on Tuesday morning that the outage was caused by "suspected vandalism" and said the incident had been reported to law enforcement.
The EPD announced the arrest in a social media post Tuesday evening. Without naming the suspect, the department said an individual believed to have been involved in the theft of the fiber cables is facing felony charges of theft of property, damaging wires and fixtures and first-degree criminal mischief.
EPD Public Information Officer Lt. Andrew Russell said Wednesday that the department doesn't intend to release additional details about the suspect or alleged crimes at this time.
"Right now, all the information we're releasing is what they had me put on Facebook last night," he said.
One inmate listed on the Union County Jail roster, who was arrested Tuesday, is shown to be facing the same charges the EPD reported the fiber theft suspect to be facing: Randall Blake Frisby, 31.
Russell declined on Wednesday to confirm whether Frisby was the suspect in the fiber theft. He said the individual who cut the fiber lines "was probably just lucky that he didn't cut something that had power running to it and get electrocuted."
"People, they don't think what they're doing affects that many people; they think they're just going to get whatever they're looking for, something for a quick buck," Russell said. "They don't think about the businesses, individuals, people around the area it's going to affect. It was like 6,200 people."
Frisby appeared in district court Wednesday, a clerk in the office said, but did not enter a plea as his felony charges were transferred to circuit court. He was issued a $150,000 bond, cash or corporate surety, and will be subject to a curfew and GPS monitoring if he bonds out, the clerk said.