Four men, attired as tower techs, couldn’t convince authorities that they had permission to remove T-Mobile decommissioned cables and were arrested at the Crown Castle compound. Inset Photo: West Boylston, PD
A brazen communications cable theft at a West Boylston, Massachusetts, cell tower on Friday afternoon led to the arrest of four New York men accused of posing as subcontractors to steal the cables for their scrap value.
The incident, which highlights a troubling trend of cell tower transmission line thefts across New England, unfolded when local police responded to an alarm at the tower located on Lawrence Street.
The West Boylston Police Department, aided by officers from Holden, Sterling, and Boylston, arrived at the scene around 3:15 p.m. to find two vehicles with New York registration and four men outfitted in what appeared to be gear typically worn by tower techs.
At that time, one individual had been climbing the tower.
The individuals, claiming to be subcontractors for T-Mobile tasked with removing 3G coax cables, could not produce any work orders or official documentation to support their claim.
Upon further investigation, officers discovered signs of forced entry into the cell tower’s equipment building and noticed that cables had been severed both inside and outside the facility.
Boylston authorities identified that such decommissioning work had not been authorized.
The multi-tenant monolpole is owned and/or managed by Crown Castle on property leased from the West Boylston Water District,
The suspects, identified as Tajpaul Moses, 32, Yuvraj Moses, 31, both of Schenectady, NY, Huckomchan Ramjiawan, 26, also from Schenectady, and Kevon Alvin Roberts, 24, of Queens, NY, were arrested and charged with breaking and entering during the daytime with intent to commit a felony, larceny over $1,200, vandalism, possession of burglary tools, and trespassing. All four were held without bail at the Worcester County House of Correction, pending their arraignment at Clinton District Court yesterday.
Area police departments have reported similar incidents, linking them to the vehicles found at the West Boylston site. The ongoing investigation is led by Detective Mitchell Rogers.
