Four men have been arrested in West Boylston, Massachusetts, for allegedly stealing telecom cables to sell for scrap.

The accused, all from New York, were arrested at the tower site after local police responded to an alarm at the site located on Lawrence Street on March 1.

According to Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the quartet had hoped to pose as T-Mobile contractors.

Sgt. James Bartlett of West Boylston police said that the four men, who were dressed as tower technicians, claimed to be contractors from T-Mobile assigned to remove 3G coax cables.

The suspects have been identified as Tajpaul Moses, 32, Yuvraj Moses, 31, Huckomchan Ramjiawan, 26, and Kevon Alvin Roberts, 24. The Moseses and Ramjiawan are from Schenectady, while Roberts is a Queens resident.

None of the suspects had any paperwork to back up their claims and one of them was scaling the tower when the police arrived at around 3:15 pm.

Boylston authorities noted that the site, which is owned by Crown Castle on property leased from the West Boylston Water District, hadn't authorized any decommissioning work. Verizon sublets the tower from Crown Castle, while T-Mobile leases it from Verizon, adds Bartlett.

“The investigation is ongoing," said Bartlett. "Other police departments have reported similar thefts at their cell towers, with the same vehicles as the ones in West Boylston."

He added: "We're trying to connect this one to the others."

Cable theft has long been an issue for the telecoms industry, given the cost of copper and other metals.

Last month, vandals in Jasper, Alabama, were accused of stealing a whole 200-foot tower.

In January, suspected copper thieves toppled a 488-foot rod cell tower in Oklahoma, causing an estimated $500,000 in damage.

Elsewhere, a 36-year-old man faces more than 50 charges over the alleged theft of coaxial cable from cell towers across Buncombe County and Henderson County, North Carolina.