Brevard County saw bizarre moments Wednesday morning in Cocoa as the theft of a cable truck turns into a Denny's breakfast and an arrest.

  • Man allegedly steals cable truck in Cocoa
  • Damaged utility pole, fiber optic cables, says police
  • 7,000 customers without service 

As a result of the incident, some 7,000 customers, including the Brevard Emergency Operations Center, plus the Cocoa and Rockledge police departments, are without service and on back-up systems.

It happened on Fiske Boulevard near Rosa L. Jones Boulevard around 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Police say a Spectrum contractor was inside the trailer making repairs to fiber optic cables with the cable fed through the window.

That's when the worker felt the trailer rocking and start to move.

He jumped out to see what was happening and saw the truck and trailer speeding away, yanking the cable line through the window and then off the lines.

“… the cable kind of got yanked out when he took off with it, but the damage to the utility pole, the fiber optic cable, was significant,” said Yvonne Martinez with the Cocoa Police Department.

Police say the alleged thief is 25-year-old Shane Younger of Melbourne.

Younger drove the truck to a Merritt Island Denny's, parked in front of the restaurant, ordered breakfast then became belligerent with the staff.

The staff called deputies, who took him into custody. He's charged with several felonies including grant theft of a motor vehicle.

Damage to the work area is more than $100,000. Service to cable, internet and phone is being restored.

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