Elderly Woman Pokes Cable, Cuts Internet Access in Three Countries

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
14,499
0
0
Elderly Woman Pokes Cable, Cuts Internet Access in Three Countries



A senior citizen inadvertently cut the internet access of three countries while digging with a spade shovel.

Some citizens of the former Soviet Union make money by digging for unused copper cables and selling them as scrap. A 75-year-old woman from Georgia was doing just that when she accidentally hit and damaged a fiber-optic cable, cutting off internet access for millions of people in three different countries.

The Guardian reports that the woman did the deed with a simple spade shovel. Georgia provides 90% of neighboring Armenia's internet, so her mistake left 3.2 million citizens of the country without internet access. In addition, areas of Georgia and Azerbaijan were also taken offline.

A system monitoring damage notified authorities who arrived shortly after the woman hit the cable. They arrested her on suspicion of damaging property, but she was temporarily released for "old age." She could face up to three years in prison.

The cable is reportedly "heavily protected," but may have been exposed due to landslides, rain, or other natural factors. I'm going to go ahead and say that if a 75-year-old digging with a dinky shovel could damage it, it wasn't "heavily protected," unless I'm missing something here. Then again, maybe the woman had been playing a lot of Minecraft [http://www.minecraft.net/].

Thanks for the tip Stevey M [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/Stevey+M]!

Source: Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-woman-cuts-web-access]

Permalink
 

vivalahelvig

New member
Jun 4, 2009
513
0
0
Wow, thats awesome, i should start digging now!
Wait, they get fiber optics over there? i should move there, and get better gaming connections!
 

Jaranja

New member
Jul 16, 2009
3,275
0
0
Heh... I love that.

"She's old... *sighs* Let's get back to work."

Maybe this is a marketing scheme by Notch... OMG THERE'S GOING TO BE CABLES IN MINECRAFT.
 

Velociferocks

New member
Jul 20, 2009
94
0
0
"temporarily released for "old age."
Nice, I think i'm gonna wait until 75 to rob all the banks in the world.
 

Svenparty

New member
Jan 13, 2009
1,346
0
0
"Temporarily Released for Old Age" is going to get me out of some situations when I'm old *views hit list*
 

GiantRedButton

Senior Member
Mar 30, 2009
599
0
21
Jaranja said:
Heh... I love that.

"She's old... *sighs* Let's get back to work."

Maybe this is a marketing scheme by Notch... OMG THERE'S GOING TO BE CABLES IN MINECRAFT.
There already are :D you can link mertal doors to switches via redstone-wire, and if someone digss there theyll damage it :D
 

kitsuta

<Clever Title Here>
Jan 10, 2011
367
0
0
vivalahelvig said:
Wow, thats awesome, i should start digging now!
Wait, they get fiber optics over there? i should move there, and get better gaming connections!
You may notice the part where a single fiber optic cable carried the internet for over 3.2 million people.
 

ShadowsofHope

Outsider
Nov 1, 2009
2,623
0
0
oggebogge91 said:
"temporarily released for "old age."
Nice, I think i'm gonna wait until 75 to rob all the banks in the world.
Sir, if you can commit to a bank robbery and likely high speed chase when you are 75 years old and more or less suffering from potentially Alzheimers or Arthritis at the same time, then you deserve to get away scot free.

OT: I lol'd. "Mom, someone's grandma broke my internet connection!" "That's nice, dear."

-_-
 

antipunt

New member
Jan 3, 2009
3,035
0
0
she was temporarily released for "old age." She could face up to three years in prison.
There were -two- amusing/strange things I found in this statement alone
 
Oct 14, 2010
362
0
0
Next, the U.S. Congress will demand a study on how secure our communications systems are against the elderly.

"Sir! A 72-year-old man in Sheboygan tried to use an ATM and knocked out two of our satellites!"
 

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
4,419
0
0
This happens to be why when you go digging for metal, you use a metal detector.

vivalahelvig said:
Wow, thats awesome, i should start digging now!
Wait, they get fiber optics over there? i should move there, and get better gaming connections!
Theres fibre optics everywhere. Its been the primary long-distance linkage method for the interwebs for dogs years now.

Come think of it, i wonder what happens to the sharks that sometimes damage cables under the Atlantic...