EDITOR'S NOTE: The video of the Air BnB in the story is not REEL Paradise — it's Dolphin Splash Zone.
The Aransas County Sheriff’s Department sent out a press release Wednesday afternoon that said one of Spectrum's major hubs in the area had been vandalized, which caused an outage of Spectrum services.
Frank Patton is one Rockport man who first noticed his Spectrum internet and cable were down. He said he felt the impact from home.
"I'm an older young man and I have nothing to do. I’m chair ridden. I watch TV all the time, and without TV it's really boring," Patton said.
Patton has been with Spectrum for years and said he never experienced anything like this from the company.
"It's been reliable. This is what’s surprising about Spectrum. Its just really embarrassing I'd say. Spectrum's big, I mean it's really big. For them to be out this long? I'm sure we’re not the only ones who have Spectrum," Patton said.
Patton wasn't the only one who felt like the internet outage came as a surprise. Doug Frankum is the owner of Rockport Air BnB, Reel Paradise.
He takes pride in the comfort he can bring to his guests who choose his business, but the Spectrum outage caused some problems for both the business and his guests.
"It's kind of a big deal cause we're in the hospitality business and we need to talk to our customers. If they have an issue or problem, we can’t communicate. So what I’m going to have to do long-term until this gets fixed is just hang out here during the day and let my customers know if they have a question to come see me," Frankum said.
Frankum said he didn’t realize how crucial the internet had become to running his business.
"If I advertise I have an office that you can work in, you can’t work. So I’m not really fulfilling the promise i made to my customers,” Frankum said.
Frankum is personally buying gift cards to all his customers to apologize for any inconvenience the internet outage cost them during their stay.
The Aransas County Sheriff’s Department is asking if anyone has information as to who was involved in the vandalism of the hub, to call them at 361-729-2222.
