EASTERN, Ky. — A Floyd County man was arrested last week after police say he was caught in the act of stealing phone and internet cable.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to Goose Creek around 3:30 a.m. last Wednesday over a report from a worker with AT&T that he was watching two men in hooded sweatshirts cutting the company’s cables. When a deputy arrived, one of the suspects ran into the hills and was lost.

The other, identified as Eddie Shepherd, 48, of David, was caught, standing beside a metal hand saw on the ground. The deputy then found hundreds of yards of cable lying on the ground and found evidence that the men planned to take all of the cable from Goose Creek to the Dollar General store on Route 680..

AT&T estimated that the damage caused was well over $10,000.

Shepherd was arrested and charged with first-degree criminal mischief and theft of more than $10,000, both of which are felonies