75-Year-Old Woman Single-Handedly Cuts Off Internet for Two Countries

**Resurrection** · 13.04.11, 05:52

75 year old cuts off two countries' internet! - Hindustan Times

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Georgian police arrested a 75-year-old woman who single-handedly cut off internet connections in Georgia and neighbouring Armenia, the interior ministry in Tbilisi said on Wednesday.

The pensioner was digging for scrap metal when she hacked into a fibre-optic cable which runs through Georgia t o Armenia, forcing many thousands of Internet users in both countries offline for several hours on March 28.

"She found the cable while collecting scrap metal and cut it to with a view to stealing it," Georgian interior ministry spokesman Zura Gvenetadze told AFP.

The woman who was arrested in the village of Ksani has been charged with damaging property and could face up to three years in prison if convicted.

"Taking into account her advancing years, she has been released pending the end of the investigation and subsequent trial," Gvenetadze said.

Many Georgians' internet connections were also briefly cut in 2009 by another scavenger who damaged the fibre-optic cable while hunting for scrap metal in the impoverished ex-Soviet state.

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I've read around to find that Pulling up unused copper cables for scrap is a common means of making money in the former Soviet Union. Some entrepreneurs have even used tractors to wrench out hundreds of miles of cable from the former nuclear testing ground at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.

Fills my heart my warmth....

**yoco** · 13.04.11, 10:16

Heard about this last week! Seriously accusing an old women of doing such a thing???? Shame on them!

**cheatos** · 13.04.11, 12:34

Originally Posted by yoco

Heard about this last week! Seriously accusing an old women of doing such a thing???? Shame on them!

For me, this news is believable because grandmothers and grandfathers have taken the mission to take down the things that have distracted their sons from "reading books".

**desodorante** · 13.04.11, 14:57

Who knows, copper is a common source of income in most 3rd world countries, but I can't imagine that poor old lady digging up a backbone or getting into some corporate owned underground tunnels to steal cable.
In my city phone and cable line stealing was a pretty serious issue some years back (and everything else made out of copper or bronze, like doorknobs and memorial plates)

**anon** · 13.04.11, 15:59

cheatos: but the Internet is like a giant book! You can find porn, funny stuff, porn, intelligent discussions, porn, free downloads, porn, educational material, and last but not least, porn.

Seriously, I don't think she wanted to cut off Internet access intentionally, but rather get that copper and make some profit from selling it. As desodorante said, my country has been through the same in the past - you couldn't go to a park and not see monument plates missing. It was the bronze rush!

I also think an Internet backbone should have been guarded a bit better.