Christian Buhr Arrested After Intentional Cell Tower Shutdown in Woodland Park
WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (KKTV) — A man was arrested last week after allegedly causing a major communication outage by shutting off power to cell towers in Teller County.
The Woodland Park Police Department reported that on Thursday afternoon, cell service for both civilians and emergency services was disrupted in the area. Initially, weather-related power issues were suspected, and service providers told customers the outage was due to power problems.
However, police investigations revealed that shortly after 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, a man entered a gated communications tower site and intentionally cut power to the equipment, which affected T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless services.
The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Christian Buhr. He was arrested and faces several misdemeanor charges, including obstruction of a telephone device, criminal tampering, obstructing governmental operations, and criminal trespass.
Buhr remains in custody at the Teller County Jail as of Monday afternoon.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has also expressed interest in the case, and the investigation continues in coordination with federal authorities.
