SaskTel says vandalism could leave customers unable to call for help

SaskTel says three recent incidents of vandalism in Saskatoon could leave customers without the ability to call for help in an emergency.

According to the Crown corporation, SaskTel infrastructure in Saskatoon was vandalized three separate times this week, affecting about 1,300 customers.

The incidents happened Wednesday on Arlington Avenue, Whiteswan Drive and Bowman Crescent, SaskTel said. The vandalism on Bowman happened Friday, SaskTel said, and about 190 people were without service as a result.

“We are concerned these outages may have impacted our customers’ ability to acquire assistance in the event of an emergency situation,” SaskTel said in a statement Friday.

According to Greg Jacobs, an external communications manager with Sasktel, the outages were caused by damages to pedestals, which are small green or grey boxes found around neighborhoods.

“They’ve broken into that box and cut a bunch of the wiring infrastructure that’s in there,” he said.

Those wires go into customers’ homes to connect them to SaskTel’s services, Jacobs said.

“This is very rare. We haven’t experienced anything like this for several years,” Jacobs said.

“As soon as we discovered what the issue was, we dispatched crews immediately to resolve them … in most cases we were able to resolve the outages relatively quickly, considering the extent of the damages.”

The vandalism has been reported to police, Jacobs said.

A Saskatoon Police Service spokesperson said the police are investigating the reports from SaskTel, but have not yet identified any suspects. Anyone with information on the vandalism was encouraged to make a report to police.

“SaskTel apologizes for any inconvenience these outages may have caused and would like to thank customers for their patience and understanding,” the Crown corporation added in a statement.

–With files from Mia Holowaychuk

–Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include additional comments from Greg Jacobs and the Saskatoon Police Service.