Dumb Criminals: Wallet Left Behind Leads to AT&T Copper-Theft Arrest of Stuttering Bob

Copper theft can be a difficult crime to solve – but two men in eastern Kentucky made it pretty easy for police.

AT&T customers in Whitley County reported service outages on Aug. 3 — and after some investigation, the phone company discovered that missing copper telephone cable was the reason behind it.

A few days later, an AT&T employee working in the area found a wallet that belonged to Jimmy Davis, a local man who police tracked down. With him was the other culprit, Anthony Anderson, a man known in the area by the moniker “Stuttering Bob,” WYMT-TV reported.

If leaving the wallet behind wasn’t enough, the men had a burn pile with remains of the copper cable in it. Copper is valuable when burned down and sold as scrap.

Of course, it’s a major safety issue for people left without phone service if an emergency arises. And it can be dangerous to the crooks who often come in close proximity to power lines when they steal it.

“Stuttering Bob” was arrested for copper theft once before in 2010.

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