Spectrum believes cable-cutters were looking for copper and — though they found none — they severed fiber-optic cables, causing a widespread internet outage.

Subscribers in Southern California of Spectrum’s Internet service experienced outages over the weekend following what company officials said was an attempted theft of copper lines located in Van Nuys, a suburb located 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

A reward was offered in an internet outage caused by a criminal act of vandalism Sunday that affected thousands of Los Angeles Spectrum customers.