Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably don’t know that it’s illegal to tamper with cellular towers. Doing so is extremely dangerous and costly. This is what one man from Miami recently discovered. 

As reported by WSVN, a man climbed up a 127-foot four-carrier tower on Wednesday. The 38-year-old man believed he was working for T-Mobile and had “stuff to do.” When he reached the top of the tower, he shut down a switch that activated an alarm. This alerted a real T-Mobile tech to visit the site. 

According to police that responded to the incident, the man “tampered with the equipment up there. He threw things down, he wasn’t listening to officers’ commands to come down.” 

Police also blocked off nearby areas while an investigation was conducted. After four hours, the man came down and shook hands with officers and firefighters. He was taken into custody and charged with “burglary of unoccupied structure and criminal mischief over $1,000.” Some reports believe he caused damage costing around $500,000. 

T-Mobile released this statement:  

“After our systems alerted us that there was a service issue at this site, which we and other providers lease from a vendor, our field technician responded, determined that there was an unauthorized entry, and called local authorities. We are grateful to the Miami Police Department and Miami Fire Rescue for their response and will continue to support their investigation. Fortunately, everyone is safe, and overlapping coverage in the area will continue to ensure customers remain connected.”

Source: WSVN