TUARAN: Alert security guards helped nab seven cable thieves on Thursday.
The thieves, aged between 20 and 34, had used vehicles that had the logos of registered contracting companies to evade detection.
The incident took place at about 4pm near SK Tajau Termenung.
Tuaran district police chief Hamizi Halim said the attempt was detected by Telekom Malaysia security guards, who detained the suspects before calling the police.
Police seized 190m of copper cables, worth RM25,000, from the thieves.
Various equipment used in the theft were also confiscated.
Hamizi said all the suspects were employees of a sub-contractor responsible for installing Unifi TM optical cables.
He believed the arrests could solve eight other cases of cable theft.