Funny?..Maybe not, depends on who you are.

Early 1980s a stone quarry I was doing permit mapping for cut a main transcontinental AT&T copper cable line. The farm owner was also one of the owners of the quarry. Cable was near the south line of the property and adjacent to a hay field. He believed that 24 inches minimum cover and took a dozer operator in CAT D9 to back blade a briar patch that was getting into his hay field. Actual cable depth was more like 10 to 12 inches. I was told the cable was "big around as a large man's thigh." Response was similar to what paden described and included a pair of mobile cable repair labs/trailers and a several snow/marsh buggies. Rumor was the multiple attorneys and insurance companies argued over that one for some time.

once cut a 1200 pair trunk line near Channelview, TX. The actual line was over 2 feet from where it was marked by the phone company and only had about a foot of cover. We were digging for laying drainage pipe. The bucket on the JD 690 backhoe did considerable damage. The Phone Co. Ate the repair costs.

I was on a subdivision site once with a transcontinental phone line crossing it. There was a lot of dirt work going on, and the phone company had someone sitting there all day during the entire dirt moving phase just to be sure no one got near it.

I don't remember how many thousands of dollars per minute he said it would cost if the line were cut, but it was an astronomical figure.

Here's one where an oil pipeline wasn't where it was supposed to be.

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And the

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Maybe that explains the ATT outage a couple of days ago.

http://www.wbir.com/story/news/local/2015/08/04/widespread-cell-phone-outages-reported--tennessee-kentucky/31121869/

Surely you can find a preacher somewhere who can explain it all to you. Punishment of the sinful and all that sort of thing. I overheard someone in a convenience store the other day explaining to someone else that is why there are so many fires currently in California. Maybe that's why I keep the Fire Department on speed dial at all times. Fires seem to be attracted to me.

My area had a "one call" gone bad yesterday:
http://www.katc.com/story/29721294/gas-leak-shuts-down-pinhook-affects-residents-and-businesses

Apparently the one call marked the gas line as per there records, but the records where not accurate. So the resulting auger drilling thru a gas line resulted. Fortunately it did not ignite or hurt anyone. I am amazed at how often this "almost" happens everyday.

At 205 North Grant in Odessa, Texas is a marker denoting one of the earliest telecom utility cuts it now being just barely past the 100th anniversary of same:

Odessa Telephone Exchange. Began operation about 1897, with Edna Fielding as "central" (operator). After Miss Fielding's death in 1902, the Rev. G. B. Ely, a baptist minister, purchased the exchange. Pioneer rancher A. Quincy Cooper bought the system in 1911, and extended service to rural areas, utilizing barbed wire fences as telephone lines. While checking his repairs on a barbed wire line on Jan. 25, 1915, Cooper interrupted the first transcontinental telephone call between Alexander Graham Bell in New York and his assistant in San Francisco. In 1928, the exchange became part of the southwestern bell telephone company.

Fortunately, it was not the result of a surveyor.

paden cash, post: 330290, member: 20 wrote: I've got a route survey I'm working on for the power company. Although it's a rural run, there's a good amount of buried comm cable out there with shiny placards about every 300'. It has even been mowed. One with field experience might get the impression it isn't just any old fiber-optic. We've already shot the placards before the spotter was on site. But after I received this email this morning (calling it a "main transcontinental"...wtf?) I decided to send a crew back out there to locate the 'zact spots their spotter marked, just to cover everybody's butt.

from my email:
Paden-
There is a main Transcontinental AT&T fiber along the West side of Sec. 17. They said they marked it intermittently-you may or may not need more spots. If you need more spots -please call Jeff (AT&T) 405 xxx-xx97

Danny-
Is there an easement document for this AT&T line?
Thanks

The crew got back out there only to find both sides of the old dirt road lined with all sorts of AT&T cars 'n trucks 'n backhoes 'n machinery. There were LOTS of shiny hard hats (never been out of the car) sitting on top of folks that weren't necessarily dressed for the field. Apparently the spotter found one of the t-post mounted placards that was a little loose in the dirt and he pounded on it with something like a hammer or something to get it a little deeper in the ground....oops...apparently the t-posts were just stuck in the loose trench backfill. I guess it was direct bury with no armor or carrier pipe. The t-post nicked the FOC and I guess everybody got excited.

"Glad it wasn't one of my guys. B-)"

Boy that's for sure!