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.

Source: Guardian