Parts of Dresden have their Bell service out and it could be out for the entire weekend.
Bell is reporting the service outage started on Friday at 5:51 a.m. and could take until Monday night to restore.
The company confirms a cable was cut, adding crews are working to resolve the issue.
Dresden resident Tanya Hardy told CK News Today it's happened three times over the last two weeks.
Hardy said the first outage lasted three days just before New Years Day, then it happened again this Monday, and again on Friday. She believes it's culprits cutting cable to steal copper wire.
Hardy said the alleged vandalism needs to stop because many people in the community only have phone land lines and it's dangerous to have no phone service in case of an emergency.
"We're frustrated of course. In between interruptions I would have people say 'oh, I tried to get a hold of you, but you must have been out.' The first time when you would ring my land line, it would just ring busy. The second interruption if you rang my land line, it would ring and ring and ring as if no one was home," said Hardy.
Hardy said it's frustrating, upsetting, and risky to be so isolated without phone service.
"Three times having no emergency service. If you've got a loved one, you need to check on them and be sure they're all right," she said.
Hardy noted she recently spoke with a linesman and was told one of the vandals cut the cable and caused thousands of dollars in damage just to access six dollars worth of copper wire.
Chatham-Kent police said it received a call from a Bell employee regarding damage to Bell wires on St. George Street North in Dresden Friday morning, adding the incident is currently under investigation.
Police are encouraging anyone with information to come forward by contacting the CK police non-emergency number at 519-352-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Bell told CK News Today it has experienced more than 1,600 security incidents to its network since January 2022, with copper theft accounting for 87 per cent of physical incidents on Bell’s network.
"Copper theft continues to be on the rise with vandals stealing copper to sell on the black market for cash," said Bell Senior Communications Manager Jacqueline Michelis.
Bell is asking anyone who witnesses suspicious activity near telecom infrastructure to contact local law enforcement.