Woman feared dead after wire theft cut her off

Pat Lowe was unable to use her telephone or WiFi to contact her family for more than three weeks

A woman says her family feared she was dead after thieves stole copper pipes, wiping out all methods of communication for 23 days.

Pat Lowe, 88, noticed she had "no BT telephone lines, no WiFi, no email, no WhatsApp, no message facilities" at her property in Viney Hill, Gloucestershire on 28 April.

Ms Lowe, who has cancer, said hospital specialists were trying to contact her to arrange appointments but could not reach her, leaving her "in danger of getting much worse" until she was reconnected on 21 May.

A spokesperson for Openreach said: "These attacks cause unacceptable disruption to the lives of local people and put vulnerable people at risk."

Ms Lowe said when you're 88 years old and in difficult times with your health, your family think "you must have died because mum always answers the phone".

"They were absolutely alarmed," she added.

She is currently receiving treatment from a cancer specialist at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and medics were trying to contact her to arrange blood tests.

The theft of copper cables puts "vulnerable people at risk", Openreach said

"I was in danger of getting much worse because I couldn't get any of these messages," she said.

"I had no security alarm system working, no medical alarm system working, no CCTV surveillance on the house. Everything was dead."

While Ms Lowe said her WiFi and telephone line are now working, it caused "incredible and continuous stress".

A spokesperson for Openreach said: "We're really disappointed that residents in the Forest of Dean have borne the brunt of a cable theft from our network.

"Complex jointing works were needed to restore the network and this required permission for temporary traffic lights to keep our engineers safe. All customers should now be back in service."

Gloucestershire Police said its intelligence teams were unaware of a large increase in copper cable thefts, which are "sporadic".