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Verizon Central Office Heist Spoiled By 911 Outage
Qbans writes with a link the NYTimes story on a foiled robbery attempt at a Verizon Central Office in White Plains, New York, snipping "The plan seemed simple enough. The building had been cased and the burglars knew exactly what they wanted - advanced computer circuit panels that could be sold on the black market for hundreds of thousands of dollars." Qbans points out that this story parallels a previous story on how equipment was (successfully) stolen last May. Update: 11/27 22:01 GMT by T : Reader Dave C contributes a link to coverage at the registration-free JournalNews.com.
someone is stealing my telephone equipment!
And they would have got away with it, if it wasn't for those meddling kids!
blackmarket == ebay??
So they tried to steal the same exact stuff at the same exact location, twice? Catch me once, shame on you... catch me twice, shame on me! Glad they caught them...
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The plan seemed simple enough. The building had been cased and the burglars knew exactly what they wanted - advanced computer circuit panels that could be sold on the black market for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The night before Thanksgiving, about 8 p.m., they entered the Verizon building in White Plains undetected and set to work.
But as the criminals removed the panels, they soon triggered problems across Westchester County. Most problematic, 911 systems across the region began to crash. By the time some 150 panels were removed, roughly 25,000 people had lost 911 service.
At 9:51 p.m., the White Plains Police received a call alerting them to the fact that there might be a problem at the Verizon building. Still unaware that burglars were at work inside, a patrol car rolled up to the site, according to Inspector Daniel Jackson.
"Literally, the two guys were walking out the door," Mr. Jackson said. They were carrying two large boxes when the officer shouted for them to stop. The men dropped the stolen boxes, fled on foot and were eventually run down by the officer and arrested, Mr. Jackson said.
The two men were identified in a criminal complaint as Larry D. Davis, 43, of Brooklyn, and Gailican Phillips, 34 of Manhattan.
They have been charged with conspiracy to commit interstate shipment of stolen property, a federal crime with a maximum sentence of five years in jail, according to the complaint.
Mr. Jackson said that the burglary itself was not as disturbing as the widespread effect it had on the 911 system.
The police are working with the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security on the case. Terrorism has been ruled out as a possible motive.
Although the burglary occurred in the Verizon building, the stolen equipment belonged to some half-dozen other telecommunications companies that use the premises to house part of their operations. No Verizon customers were affected, a company official said.
Dan Diaz Zapata, a spokesman for Verizon, said the building had many levels of security - from video cameras to security badges to on-site guards - and that the company was cooperating with local and federal authorities. Mr. Zapata said that Verizon had redundancy capabilities built into its system that would have prevented a theft of their own equipment from having such a wide impact.
Mr. Jackson said that there had been a theft at the building once before, in 2003, and the police had reason to believe one of the two men involved Wednesday also took part in that operation. He would not elaborate on other details in that case. However, much less was stolen then.
According to the complaint filed in Southern District of New York, the circuit boards ranged in value from $5,000 to $70,000 each and, all told, were worth in excess of $1 million. The plan was to deliver them to an unnamed co-conspirator who, in turn, planned to sell them to an unnamed company in California, according to the complaint.
"There apparently is a strong, robust black market for this stuff," said a federal law enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity for fear of saying something that would compromise the investigation.
There have been two other similar burglaries in New York City and New Jersey in recent years, according to Mr. Jackson. Those thefts were much smaller in scale.
National Infrastructure Coordination Center of the Department of Homeland Security is also working with local police because of concern that the 911 system could be relatively easily compromised.
After arresting the two men and photographing the stolen circuit panels, the police returned them to the companies that owned them. Once reinstalled, the 911 problems ended, and by 7 a.m. the system was back to normal, Mr. Jackson said.
Police said the panels that were stolen were each about the size of a legal pad and are used by telecommunications companies to transmit data and connect calls. There is an industry standard for the panels and they can easily be transferred from one computer to another.
Potential buyers of the panels on the black market range from small telecommunications companies to overseas clients, the police said.
For any telecommunications equipment used by the government and connected to the public telephone network, I would expect each component to have a network requestable serial number. That would quickly reduce the black market value for such components in a way similar to mobile phones
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
...are there really that many calls for emergency assistance, or are they basing it on a people-per-exchange basis?
and WHO do you call when 911 don't respond?
http://www.frugle.co.uk/
Ghostbusters!
Tip: Save time by hitting the return key instead of clicking on "search"
Find web pages that contain the term "www.nytimes.com/2004/11/27/nyregion/27theft.html"
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If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the following link: www.nytimes.com/2004/11/27/nyregion/27theft.html
(Yeah, I didn't feel like checking my post either)
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Interesting that someone wishes to steal this stuff.
Doubly interesting that theres obviously a market for this equipment.
Is it analgous to the theft of The Scream? Authorities must have a fair idea of the potential recipients from the get go. Be it international or not.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Does this mean that the telecommunications companies using the Verizon premises are not Verizon customers? Is that what it says on the rent check?
If you think deeply enough, you will have no single direction for your outrage.
If someone died as a result of not having 911 services, these guys could be in even bigger trouble.
"The men dropped the stolen boxes, fled on foot and were eventually run down by the officer and arrested, Mr. Jackson said." Wait... they had them in boxes and when the officer showed up they dropped them?? It doesnt mention any of them being damaged...
Wrong. T-Mobile is a division of Deutche Telekom.
"brxref
Use bugmenot's firefox extension and avoid time wasting forms. http://bugmenot.com/
Why does /. even allow links to sites like the NY Times which require PITA registration? A moments search on Google or Google News almost always turns up unrestricted options. Try the NY Post for this story.
Federal conspiracy charges were filed in White Plains yesterday against two men whose alleged attempt to steal 150 circuit boards from a Verizon building Wednesday night disrupted 911 emergency service across the county for about seven hours.
oops - I'm sure they weren't interested in disrupting 911 service across state lines to make it a Federal "conspiracy" charge. Sounds like they will be made an example of and will likely end up in federal "pound-me-in-the-ass" prison.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
"There apparently is a strong, robust black market for this stuff," said a federal law enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity for fear of saying something that would compromise the investigation.
Maybe I'm confused here, but how does giving your name out compromise the investigation? I'm tired of all these federal officials who insist on being anonymous and hidden. Shouldn't LEO's be forthright and honest?
I know its an American saying but in (British) English, that would imply mowing them down with the patrol-car.
I'd have to say 'Fair Play' to that
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Most computer items of any price are for sale on ebay (even very expensive network switches and routers). What kind of cards were these and the one in NYC? I assume they are re-selling to other telcos. Wonder why you never see them on ebay.
Hopefully not murder.
You could then say that if someone in the office spilled a drink on the board, fried it knocking out 911, that they were now subject to murder charges.
Of course, my counter argument would be that if 911 was so important, why didn't the government protect it better? Come on, putting it all in one office? Unmanned?
> conspiracy to commit interstate shipment of stolen property
... So this Verizon building is exactly on the state border ? They got cauched at the door - whers this shipment and conspiracy ?
>Terrorism has been ruled out as a possible motive.
You people live in a one big lie, dont you ? There were two thieves, they stole something, and all you can read is "this was not a terrorist act THIS TIME", but it was a "conspiracy"! And "interstate shipment"!
Go grab those torrents.
I'd like to hear some specifics on exactly what kind of "circuit boards" they were stealing. Give us telecom nerds the details!
Actually, it's a perfect half-assed plot.
"What'll we do if someone figures out we're here?"
"Nothing, who are they going to call anyway? We're taking down 911!"
"That's brilliant!"
Heh heh.
Like what I said? You might like my music
It was so obviously not terrorists. I mean, come on, the guys were stealing stuff. If they were terrorists, they'd have just blown themselves up when they got next to the boards in the building.
Hey look, a snake! Oh, sorry, I guess it was just a plain rope.
(It's pissing me off too that every time someone yells fire there's immediately a discussion about whether or not the fire is terrorism, and when it turns out there's no fire, whether or not the person yelling fire is a terrorist. Jeez, we had regular crime before 9/11, we still have it)
Like what I said? You might like my music
Verizon != Verizon Wireless, if equipment is stolen from the White Plains Verizon office, it will have nothing to do with cell phone service.
The reason they could be hit with murder charges is that, if in the comission of a felony someone dies as a result, you are guilty of murder. So if you rob a store with guns, the police show up and shoot your partner, you are guilty of murder since your comission of the felony was the proximate cause of the death.
Not all states have laws like that, but many do. Since they were comitting a felony, they could be charged.
Now someone who spills coffee on the boards by accident isn't comitting a felony, they are making a mistake. The most they could be charged with is manslaghuter for gross neglience (since there is no situation where liquids should be anywhere near the equipment) however in all likelyhood they'd not be charged, just fired by the company and sued by the victim's family.
About 10 years ago I got a tour of the Tellus facility in Alberta, at that time Alberta Government Telephone. My uncle was one of the senior telcom engineers there so he arranged the whole thing. Security was fairly impressive going through the front, getting checked in and our visitor badges and everything. However, as we were walking around, he opened a door to the alley and noted often people would prop it open so they could duck out and back in.
This i, unfortunately, often the case. Security is well intentioned, but isn't completely thought through and has holes in it. Also, you'd be amazed what social engineering and some confidence can get you. If you act like you are supposed to be somewhere, it's amazing how peopel will just assume you are.
A couple years ago I was working for network operations on campus and we were upgrading the speed of building links, which involved a swap of the media converters. Most buildings we just go and get access to the room with our keys, since it's a dedicated room. However for the campus police, it's back in the 911 room with the other equipment. So when we went the staff member (I was a student) had his telcom ID and we both had university ID and driver licenses. The manager was by the phone if a verification call was needed.
We walked into the lobby, and it looked to be quite a secure location. All the doors were locked, all the glass was bulletproof. We went over to the window for the 911 call centre and told them we were form telecom and needed to get at the network gear. They said "ok" and let us in, took us to the closet, let us in there, and left us alone with all the 911 gear (and our switch). No ID was checked.
The last thing in the world nanog needs is more slashdor lusers subscribing.
Think of it as the difference between arson on an abandoned warehouse catching the security guard, or the homeless man, versus leaving the stove on by accident. One is an accident, one is a crime. I hope a crime that causes additional harm means more severe charges.
I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by
This article scares the hell out of me. Not because some dudes broke into a building and stole some stuff -- that's to be expected. It's because removing a few isolated pieces of equipment managed to paralyze the county's 911 system. Seriously -- do they actually run tests to see what happens if they pull the plug?
The rule for redundancy is that you've gotta have the equipment in more than one place. The redundant equipment shouldn't have been in the same building, let alone the same town.
A few years ago, an underground steam explosion knocked out the main phone and power stations for my area (both of which were stupidly placed smack next to each other). Because of the way the network was designed, phone service was not interrupted at all and the power went out for about 10 minutes. This was from an explosion which completely severed the connections to both buildings. THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD WORK.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I'd be willing to bet they were stealing line cards from CLEC coloc chassis, which would totally kill the phone/DSL service from the CLEC's clients. Instead of saynig "25,000 people lost phone service" I'm guessing they said "25,000 people lost access to 911, which meant they could have DIED!"
.bombs, the market is fairly flooded with carrier gear. Unless it's zero day goods, the value on this crap drops like a rock.
Too bad there aren't more tech details.
And I guess the people from NYT haven't tried to sell this type of equipment. Given the gluttony of
PS: Portmaster 4 for sale, contact me off list.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
As for registration, can you spell P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L? There are enough other annoyances in life. Why put up with the avoidable ones?
(2 ea) 5 years federal pen
Their disregard for others is only matched by political buffoons who disarm law abiding citizens and expect them to survive criminal incidents long enough to call 911 and wait for cops to get off their donut laden fat asses to come do their public servant pay grade jobs.
What is so surprising about this incident is that cops actually showed up in time to catch the perpetrators. I guess that multi-thousand dollar circuit boards are more important than human lives to the cops as well.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves
Apparently from the story, one of the criminals was probably involved in a previous heist at the same location. He was so greedy, he had to try and "double dip" and paid the biggest price for it. Now he's caught red handed--I'd like to see him weasel his way out of this.
Linux at home
Terrorists need money to buy explosives and fake passports...stolen property can be sold for money without having to have paid for it...they were going to be sold on the black market...more than likely sold to a second-world country...
Of course I'm not saying they were terrorsits, I obviously have way too little information to make such an ascertion...but to put those pieces together and think there is no way they can be terrorists, that's just plain ignorance.
...but you know just as well as I do that the chances of those guys moving a million dollars worth of hot, specialized telco electronics solely in the state of New York is next to nil. It's not like they stole dvd players. Besides, isn't there a federal law regarding the availability of 911 service? At the minimum, they interrupted emergency service, which I think is federal, though I don't know for sure. Trumped up charges do happen dude, but these seem completely inline with the crime. besides, if they don't pan out, it's not federal anymore. woo.
Terrorists need money to buy explosives and fake passports...stolen property can be sold for money without having to have paid for it...they were going to be sold on the black market...more than likely sold to a second-world country...
Which they typically get from a sponsoring government.
Of course I'm not saying they were terrorsits, I obviously have way too little information to make such an ascertion...but to put those pieces together and think there is no way they can be terrorists, that's just plain ignorance.
Um, you picked the word, not I.
In any case, what I was objecting to was that they made this big deal about "it's not terrorists". Why? Why does every time something happen we first figure out if it's terrorists, and *then* get on the real problem? Not only is it just more scaredy-cat press, it's inefficient because the first step taken for 99% of crimes committed in this country is a wasted step. Instead, if the investigation should point to terrorism, then it's a valid question to ask.
Not that I've ever done any investigative work, it just seems procedurally inefficient to ask the same question for everything, knowing that 99% of the time the question is irrelevant to the case.
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"advanced computer circuit panels that could be sold on the black market for hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Who exactly are they selling these to? Other phone companies??
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
but it was a "conspiracy"! And "interstate shipment"! ... So this Verizon building is exactly on the state border ? They got cauched at the door - whers this shipment and conspiracy ?
from the article:
According to the complaint filed in Southern District of New York, the circuit boards ranged in value from $5,000 to $70,000 each and, all told, were worth in excess of $1 million. The plan was to deliver them to an unnamed co-conspirator who, in turn, planned to sell them to an unnamed company in California, according to the complaint.
That second sentance explains it. They, as in more than one, planned, as in conspiracy, to steal the boards in NY and sell them in CA, as in interstate shipment.
Dork.
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
"I'm still curious as to how they got past the guards"
What guards? Why does everyone assume there were guards? No one mentioned there were guards onsite except some slashdotards.
Many switches have no security onsite--no one is guarding the place.
Costs too much money.
Alarm system w/ 24x7 A/V monitoring much cheaper. Some use live A/V to control access from another site, perhaps from the RCC itself.
Dan Diaz Zapata, a spokesman for Verizon, said the building had many levels of security - from video cameras to security badges to on-site guards - and that the company was cooperating with local and federal authorities.
Those guards.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
These guys were caught because of stupidity and greed.
They were in the building, pulling cards that were in active use, for about TWO HOURS. According to the article they arrived around 8pm, and the police didn't get a report that there might be a problem at that building until 9:51. Sometime after that, the police car arrived at the building, where they caught the guys walking out.
It makes me wonder about how much more successful an intelligent thief could be -- these guys made an earlier hit on the same building, which went smoothly (and they took much less)... so they got greedy and overconfident. And paid for it by getting caught in a stupid way (um, these boards are in use; people's phone service *will* be affected; no, you don't want to hang around all night).
Don't these guys watch any movies? How classic is that mistake?
"arrested her for the forgery and theft"
They might have arrested her for forgery, but they couldn't have arrested her for theft. When you are married, you own property *jointly*. In other words, legally it was her car as much as it was his, that's how marriage works. The forgery might even have been justified on that basis: the car should have been titled in both their names. The guy who founded FedEx got around a forgery charge by claiming that was just the way things were being done at the company at that time.
A better move would have been to claim that the person who bought it must have forged the signature. Then they would have been guilty of theft and forgery, and he would have gotten the car back. Bringing the wife into it ruined any chance of recovering the car (other than suing her for the money and buying the car back).
Which they typically get from a sponsoring government.
Let's review, typically means not all the time...hmmmm, this touches on the difference between probable and possible. I'm saying it's possible, and you're dismissing it because it's not probable.
O/Usama Bin Laden makes millions, if not billions, from the black market--opium, etc... but then maybe you don't think he's a good example of a terrorist...
Um, you picked the word, not I.
Unless Slashdot is playing tricks on me again, I thought I replied to what you originally said.
I know the article used the word "terrorist" (I'm assuming that's 'the word' you're referring too?), and I know you did too in your post; that's the one I replied to...thinking it would be relevant--yes, I used the word too. If that's not the word you're referring too, then I'm just lost.
The rest of your last post is funny. Usually you start the investigation off assuming you have a criminal, right? Then try to prove or disprove who and what the criminal is and what they did or did not do? Just a guess, but you'd have to start with something, evidence or a hunch...granted they didn't find any evidence saying they were terrorists (since they say in the article that they don't think they are terrorists), but with the DoHS and the FBI involved, I don't think it's entirely inefficient to rule out terrorism...especially because they did destroy life-saving infrastructure (911) and communications within the U.S. (not exactly the first target you might expect to be hit by terrorists, but it certainly wouldn't be ignorant to think they might).
And yes, I'd hope the mugging that happened to Joe Schmoe isn't taken to the FBI and I would certainly hope there isn't a newspaper article with headlines, "Mugger has no ties to terrorism" (although the thought of a mugger jumping out from a dark alley would certainly constitute terror...but that's another issue all-together).
Thank God, they STOLE the stuff and proved they were true americans ... just slashing the wires would have gotten then terrorism charges.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
My father in law is a Manager for SBC Ameritech. I've gotten a tour of a local switching office and was floored by the equipment inside. There was more money (in equipment) in that 1400 square foot room than the bank across the street.
Ever feel like you are driving the getaway car?
Theser are almost always inside jobs by an employee or ex who knows exactly what it there and what is marketable. Silicon Valley has been plagued by these for decades, particularly in commodity hardware manufacturing. A stick of memory chips can go for several hundred dollars.
When you are married, you own property *jointly*. The principle of community property only applies in some states, and only applies to court ordered dissolution of assets. If her name was not on either the title, the registration, or the loan application, then it ain't hers until a judge says so, even if it IS a community property state.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves
Terrorism has been ruled out as a possible motive.
Please, someone tell me you haven't all been indoctrined into the Bush Family Groupthink that every single crime that goes on anywhere in the whole damn country has some sort of terrorist motive? The homeless guy stealing apples from the grocery store isn't a terrorist sleeper agent, the guy behind the counter that short-changes you in Wal-Mart is not an Islamic fundamentalist hell-bent on destroying the West, and two bungling jackasses stealing computer equipment are not committing an act of jihad - if Osama bin Laden was going to get at America again, you really think he'd do it by stealing circuit panels? You don't seem to understand that Al-Queda chooses it's targets to make a statement - hence the targetting of the military and financial hearts of America on 9/11. They're not going to waste their time disrupting a few 911 calls in some little county in southern NY. Trust me, they've got more important things to do.
Americans, please, a little note from the rest of the world - there are some people out there that are more than capable of being anti-social without being part of some Islamic doctrine to convert you all to Sharia. Stop screaming 'terrorist' anytime anything kicks off, it's called 'crying wolf'. How many of you out there now automatically think 'terrorism' when something you don't like happens? I've nothing against Americans, but there does seem to be a rich vein of groupthink running through you guys just at the moment...
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
The car was purchased by me before we were married, and her name was never on the title.
That aside, though, yes - you're probably correct that the "better move" would have been pursuing the buyer of the car. Problem is, I had no idea until months later that she actually sold the car. When I first called and reported the car missing - I was under the impression that she just had it hidden somewhere. (One of her relatives was helping her out at the time, and they had a big garage which they could easily have been keeping my car in to prevent me from easily getting it back.)
Furthermore, although I'm pretty sure I found the buyer, she would never tell me who she sold it to - and the suspected buyer refused to return any of my phone calls I made, attempting to get more information or confirmation of a purchase.
The Dept. of Motor Vehicles won't give me information about the new buyer either, because they say that became "confidential information" ever since the title changed hands.
See here
Article 218 - [If, by means of an intentionally committed physical attack, a person causes another person bodily injury or damage to his health, and he can be regarded as being responsible for these consequences of the attack through intent or negligence, he shall be [...]1) imprisoned for up to 3 years, or fined if there are particular mitigating circumstances.
My other UID is 1337
How long ago was this? I might be able to help you find it. My company is an FL private eye firm. If you have the VIN, or the plate number (and state) when you had it, I can find it for you.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves
No, I think they meant burglarized, just like they said. It's perfectly good English on this side of the pond, as is "buglary". English has rules but they aren't always set in stone. If you want a language that makes perfect sense go check out Lojban, previously known as Loglan.
What are we going to do tomorrow night?
NARF!
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.