Moore County deputies arrested three Hoke County men for their alleged roles in cutting fiber optic lines earlier this month.
Mitchell Campbell, 43; Charles Donnelly, 44 and Mario Dockery, 44, face charges after authorities found the lines cut the lines in two places along Old Morganton Road near Morganton Road in Southern Pines.
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Campbell is charged with three counts of felony injury to utility wires, felony conspiracy and felony attempted larceny.
Donnelly is charged with two counts of felony injury to utility wire, felony conspiracy, and felony attempted larceny.
Dockery is charged with felony accessory after the fact to injury to utility wires.
Authorities are holding the men at the Moore County Detention Center without bond.
Donnelly is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 12. Campbell and Dockery are scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 13.
The Moore County County’s Sheriff’s Office said that repairing the damage from Oct. 12 would cost more than $50,000.
The sheriff’s office said the incident was an attempted theft of wiring material. Although the motive was theft, the damage caused significant disruption to communications and internet services across portions of Moore County.
The sheriff’s office suspects the men were attempting to steal wiring material. Although the motive was theft, the damage caused significant disruption to communications and internet services across portions of Moore County.
Spectrum crews repaired internet service around 6 p.m. on Oct. 12 after it was out for more than 12 hours.
Anyone with additional information related to the case is asked to call the Moore County Sheriff’s Office at 910-947-2931.
The investigation is ongoing.
Other incidents, including 2022 Moore County power station attack
In August, authorities arrested a Moore County man for accusations of stealing wire from a power pole. It left 150 Randolph Electric customers without power.
The 2025 incidents are not the first on Moore County’s infrastructure.
In December 2022, two energy substations were shot up and damaged.
Power was out for thousands of people for five days and one person died due to the outage.
No arrests have been made in the December 2022 attacks.
There's a combined $100,000 reward for information to solve the December 2022 case.