Wired gamers arrested for cable theft spree

It’s game over for three men in Guizhou Province who police say stole hundreds of meters of cable from telephone poles to fund their online gaming.

Police in Guiyang, Guizhou Province detained the trio on November 12 after they were caught on video clipping 230 meters of network cables from poles in a local community.

The heist had reportedly caused 20,000 yuan ($ 2,904) in damages and knocked out area phone and Internet for nearly 16 hours, police said.

Surveillance footage shows the trio skulking around the Yinjia Garden residential community early on November 8.

The men climbed up a number of telephone poles and cut down long lengths of wires before hailing a taxi.

Dashboard video from the cab interior showed the group laughing it up all the way to the salvage yard.

“They were very exited and couldn’t stop laughing, it was like they had won the lottery or something,” the cabbie later told police.

Police said they fenced the stolen cable for 2,100 yuan before heading to an Internet bar to splurge on games.

Police eventually tracked down the men and arrested them on November 12.

The three twenty- somethings admitted to a number of cable raids on public utilities to pay for their gaming habits.