Co-axed
The stolen modem below reminded me of a similar, though less understandable theft.

At uni we had a film club - this was in 1981, when VCRs were still really new, so students didn't have them (or laptops of course!). So we'd get together in a room and watch a tape that we'd clubbed together to rent. The actual VCR was in a media suite a couple of floors above, since it was too expensive to let grubby first-years get near; only the third-years who ran the AV suite were allowed to touch it.

One night, in the middle of the show, the TV trolley suddenly jerked, and the picture disappeared. As the lights came on it became apparent that someone had yanked the co-ax cable out from outside, where it entered the room through a hole in the windowsill, and cut off a few metres.

I've never quite been able to imagine why someone would have a sudden, pressing, late-night need for three metres of coax, with no connectors on it.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Mon 11 Nov 2013, 10:23, Reply)