FYI my office will reach out to Ms. Davis to let her know we’ve received her concerns about the copper theft and AT&T’s restoration timeline.
Regards,
Sheriff Ken Binder
San Mateo County
330 Bradford Street
Redwood City, CA 94063
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From: Janet Davis
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2026 2:36 PM
To: Kenneth Binder ; CEO_BoardFeedback ; City Council Council ; Steve McCulley ; Michael Callagy ; Virginia chang kiraly
Subject: CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE LACK OF PROTECTION
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of San Mateo County. Unless you recognize the senders email address and know the content is safe, do not click links, open attachments or reply.
________________________________
SHERIFF OFFICE ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL?
Emergency Services’ Useless Alerts:
In January during the rains, people in at least Stanford Weekend Acres were woken up twice in the middle of the night by inane Alerts: (1) for some crisis in Monterey County, and (2) for a mythical “flash flood” in Ladera that would have been physically impossible.
SO’s Lack of Knowledge of ATT Internet Crash/Traffic Chaos:
Wednesday, 2/11 a.m. The computers were not functioning. Tearing apart the router proved fruitless. Trying to access Alpine road was near impossible, plus the road was blocked by huge cranes, multiple trucks, dangling wires, and total chaos. Apparently during Tuesday night (2/10/26) crooks had scaled the huge poles opposite Rural Lane and stolen all the ATT copper wires. ATT service rep. said that service would only be restored 2/27/26! The workmen reported 2/13 that other significant thefts had also occurred along Alpine Road in Portola Valley along Sand Hill Road, and in Woodside, even while they were repairing the lines on Alpine.
I texted the SO to report the outage. Feb. 12 Mark Myers responded that he showed good coverage in the area, and that no one had reported an outage. Feb. 13 he texted me that ATT made a report to the SO and that coverage would be back “in a few days!” ATT told us perhaps service could be restored Feb. 18! Eight days after the theft.
In addition to individuals’ need for secure internet coverage (especially at tax time) presumably PGE relies on it for remote reading of utility meters, and SFPUC apparently uses it to control/monitor water flow through the 8ft. diameter Hetch Hetchy pipeline that bisects our property. Some elderly people living alone rely on a land line for emergency help. There is still no coverage as of 2/14/26.
There were reports that BART was shut down for some days because crooks dug up all the copper lines those cars relied on.
The Daily Post 2/13/26 reported on page 8 that, according to Lt. Craig Lee, last weekend burglars broke into 3825 Fabian Way in Palo Alto and removed copper wiring, causing over $100,000 damage.
Earlier this week a couple of fire engines from Station E4 were frantically trying to reach an emergency somewhere up Alpine Road. The intersection at Junipero Serra/Alpine was totally blocked. The west side of Alpine was blocked by equipment and traffic in both directions was one lane. The fire engines were trying desperately to get to the emergency by using the bike lane on the west side of Alpine but it was completely blocked by traffic coming from 280 that could not move out of the way.
UPDATE SATURDAY FEB. 14
No work being done on Alpine road equipment and no internet service. My husband spent ages on the cell phone with ATT to check status. Apparently the thieves took other equipment that is not in stock with ATT and they have to order replacements. If this equipment arrives, ATT might be able to restore internet service on Wednesday Feb. 18: 8 days after the theft!
This is a totally unacceptable situation, especially in tax season. What do you plan to do to safeguard critical infrastructure, and to ensure that the SO and other agencies are up to coping with emergencies, which they obviously are not at present.
QUESTIONS:
1. Why no notification of outage to SO by ATT?
2. Why no automatic system of notification by ATT to SO?
3. Why no traffic support by SO/CHP if and when drivers complained?
4. Who is buying all this copper?
5 Given the number of incidents why no interagency Task Force in operation?
6. Why no ALERT so commuters having internet connection, could alter route?
7. Why is critical infrastructure not secure?
8. Why was the ATT coverage depicted as “good” when it was nonexistent?
9. What if anything is going to be done to rectify these failures?
