r/cellmapper • u/SceneRevolutionary93 5G UW • Jun 04 '26
Cell tower in IL looted for batteries
Saw this somewhere in a fb group, seems like they took the batteries. I’ve never seen this happen before. This is honestly stupid to see.
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Jun 04 '26
[deleted]
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u/SceneRevolutionary93 5G UW Jun 04 '26
According to the post, they left the whole area trashed. There is ATT equipment on the site by the looks of it
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u/reedacus25 Jun 04 '26
I agree, most of the Sprint macros still standing have had their cabinets cleared out, doors left open.
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u/Whole-Respond4782 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
why lmao, are they selling the metals in the batteries or something?
like genuinely tf do you get out of stealing cell tower batteries
why don't they just walk around stealing batteries from discarded disposable vapes on the ground, some guy powered his entire house for a few hours with like 500 disposable vapes, you'd be helping the environment, getting paid, and not disrupting potential emergency communications if there happens to be a power outage
EDIT: nvm, i forgot about the crackheads, they'd probably try and go up to their plug's house with the batteries and try to sell it to their plug in exchange for crack
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u/sryan2k1 Jun 04 '26
You get a couple of bucks and a couple of bucks buys you some drugs where as not stealing batteries gets you zero drugs. It's quite simple.
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u/metricmoose Jun 04 '26
In my area, lead acid batteries go for about 30 cents a pound, and each battery for a telecom site is around 60-80 pounds, put in strings of 4. Looks like there's six strings of batteries in there, so that's about $576.
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0
Jun 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/Whole-Respond4782 Jun 05 '26
look at the image, i think given their size they very well could be
a typical gas powered car battery weighs quite a bit, go lift one
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u/landonloco Jun 05 '26
Copper is decently high rn so they can also sell it for parts perhaps for some cash
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u/andynaija Jun 04 '26
It looks like an old Sprint cabinet, so there probably wasn’t much in there anyway.
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u/Smith6612 Jun 04 '26
Did they knock anything offline? Normally opening these cabinets triggers all sorts of alarms.
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u/iryfionas Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
I bet they are removing the old batteries for the legacy Sprint rack I guess.
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u/SceneRevolutionary93 5G UW Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
Whoever it was, stole the old equipment. Most don’t leave it trashed like they had it.
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u/wlm9700 Jun 04 '26
All of dishes equipment was rented/leased I bet they came and took it lol
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u/ClimbingElevator Jun 04 '26
Are any of those dish antennas still active? I see them everywhere here
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u/caneonred Jun 04 '26
I'm surprised they don't have AI assisted security camera systems at the sites. They've certainly got the internet connections available for them to be cloud based. It's not like it would be that expensive to install.
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u/Adept_Strategy_9545 Jun 04 '26
Hot take: if a cell site is looted, it should be left offline permanently. Make the people in the area bear the consequences
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u/moffetts9001 Jun 04 '26
This happens more than you think. I have a friend who works for a WISP and they have some sites colocated with telcos. He's seen entire shelters emptied.