Cell Tower News: Tower theft disrupts service, causes millions in loss

by Jarad Matula September 25, 2015

written by Jarad Matula September 25, 2015

Couple wreaks havoc with tower thefts

A couple in the Cincinnati area is responsible for what is being called “millions of dollars” in losses to mobile carriers as well as a seven-hour disruption of service. According to police, Rachel and Michael Cowan stole more than $45,000 in batteries from six towers before they fled the area. The couple, originally from Gilbert, Arizona, are also responsible for cell tower thefts in North Dakota and Minnesota. The crimes in the Cincinnati area were perpetrated between late last year and the beginning of April and affected T-Mobile US, Sprint and Cincinnati Bell. One of the incidents was so destructive that it caused a power surge, disabling an Indiana mobile network for seven hours.

Michael Cowan previously worked as a subcontractor for tower sites, which is where he learned the skills to commit these crimes while his wife served as a lookout. The head-scratcher related to this incident is that if he worked for these companies before, he must have known how much these batteries are worth, so to merely sell them for scrap like he did was a strange choice. The story of the Cowans has many twists and turns, including continuing to sell stolen batteries the same day as an initial run-in with the police and the tracking device that was discovered and removed by the Cowans.

Eventually, the very objects of their crimes caused their capture. Police were able to use pings from a cell tower to track Michael Cowan’s phone to a recycling area in Saint Paul, Minn., where it was confirmed the stolen items were sold. And, after getting a nationwide compliant warrant, they were able to track him down in North Dakota and bring him to justice, eventually nabbing his wife as well, who is also named a defendant in the Ohio indictment. The Cowans face seven counts of a fifth-degree felony breaking and entering, four counts of fifth-degree felony theft and one charge of fourth-degree felony disruption of public services, all total a potential of up to 13 years in prison for each of them.

This is just the latest in an increasingly long string of cell tower equipment thefts that have happened over the past few months.

Verizon talks about the tower toolkit

In this episode of Cell Tower News, host Joey Jackson discusses the tower toolkit with Verizon Wireless PMTS maintenance wngineer Dennis McColl. They talk about hotel base stations, DAS and small cell networks, VoLTE, as well as how Dennis helped put murderers behind bars.