GREENSBORO, N.C. — Michael Dimock walks to his garage and grabs a ladder tucked in the back. He slings it over his shoulder and starts to walk down the long driveway leading to the street.
As he walks, he talks about how the renovations to the den and bathroom are almost complete and how much he loves the home, “We did a lot to it, it looks good,” said Dimock.
He then reaches the end of the driveway and props the ladder up before starting to climb it. After just two steps up he stops and reaches his hand in the air before touching a cable line that runs just above his driveway, “I’m scared someone is going to get hurt,” said Dimock.
The line hangs a precarious nine feet above his yard and driveway. An avid biker Dimock often must drive to the street before putting his bikes on top of the car, “Oh they’d hit it (line) if I didn’t put them on and take them off before going under the line,” said Dimock.
The line started to sag after a tree fell on it several months ago. Crews came out and fixed the other cables but the one belonging to AT&T just kept getting lower and lower before Dimock finally called the company, “I’ve been on hold four hours trying to get a hold of somebody.” said Dimock.
When he finally did reach an operator, he says she told him to “drive around the neighborhood” and find an AT&T technician to fix the line, “I said you expect me to drive around Greensboro and find a truck and then bring them to my house to fix it,” said Dimock.
With his frustration getting worse and the concern greater, Dimock reached out to News 2 for help, “I was getting nowhere,” said Dimock.
A few days later we went to the home ourselves to see the line and talk with Dimock. We measured the line at a sagging point just below 9 feet, “It’s only a matter of time before I hit my head when walking by,” said Dimock.
The line is so low the general contractor will no longer bring her main truck to the house to do work because she fears it may catch on something and pull the lines and maybe a pole down.
After going to visit the home and see the lines and talk with Dimock we passed an AT&T truck on the way back to the TV station. I stopped and asked the lineman if he could maybe help with the problem at Dimock’s house.
The lineman agreed the line should be much higher than nine feet above the ground and phoned into a supervisor. I alerted Dimock and continued driving to the station hoping it would be fixed soon.
A couple of days later Dimock called to tell me the line was indeed raised, “Without you Kevin this wouldn’t have changed, we’d still be in this same predicament of me driving under the (line) hoping please don’t clip the line, please don’t clip the line, I really appreciate you doing that for us,” said Dimock.
An AT&T spokesperson reached out to News 2 the next day to also confirm the line was up and to make sure the customer was satisfied.
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