Tesla's ten newest Superchargers in Ballarat, Victoria, had been in the ground for about a week. On Saturday evening, someone cut the cable off every stall at the Coltman Plaza site in Lucas: the ten new ones, and the ten beside them that were already in service.That was 20 cables at one site. Across Ballarat the total came to 28, according to the Ballarat Courier, which reported six more cut at the Wendouree Homemaker Centre and two at Bedgoods Kia in Wendouree. The paper reported the damage suggested a power tool was used.The obvious guess is copper. If that's right, whoever did it picked a strange state to do it in.Victoria stopped paying cash for scrap in 2018Since May 30, 2018, scrap metal dealers in Victoria have been banned from paying or receiving cash. A Consumer Affairs Victoria notice spells it out: payment by non-transferable cheque or electronic transfer only, and the dealer has to record the seller's name, address and identification.When the ban took effect, the state government put the penalty for buying or selling scrap for cash at more than $30,000. The police minister at the time, Lisa Neville, gave the reason plainly in the government's announcement: "We know that scrap metal is a major source of revenue for organised crime."So the lawful way to turn a pile of freshly cut Supercharger cable into money in Victoria goes like this: take it to a licensed dealer, show ID, give them your address, and wait for a bank transfer with your name on it.Tesla Superchargers in Tailem Bend, South Australia. Each stall has one cable; without it, the stall can't charge anything. Photo: Chuq / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0A poor place to go looking for copperEven setting the paperwork aside, a fast-charger cable is an odd target. The thick cords on high-power chargers are generally liquid-cooled, and the point of that design is to move a lot of current without needing a correspondingly heavy copper conductor. The Lucas site is rated at up to 250 kW, according to Tesla's listing.The economics only run one way. A stall without its cable is a very expensive post. A cable without its stall is a length of hose with some metal in it.Back up, partlyThe Courier reported repair crews were at Lucas by early Sunday afternoon. That night, an owner posting on the Tesla Motors Club forum wrote that the Tesla app was showing 12 stalls available at Lucas and 8 out of order.Tesla's own public page for the site, as of Tuesday, still lists Lucas as a 10-stall station, so the expansion hadn't even made it onto the website before it needed repairs. The company's older Ballarat site on Gillies Street North is listed at six stalls of up to 125 kW. Tesla has not made a public statement about the damage.Two sites down in one town is worse than it sounds. Ballarat sits roughly 115 km (about 70 miles) west of Melbourne, and a Ballarat Tesla driver quoted by the Courier pointed out there are no Tesla Superchargers on the freeway between the two cities. A network of tens of thousands of Superchargers doesn't help much when both sites in town are down.Not the only cable trouble in Ballarat that weekendJust before 5 a.m. Monday, an equipment fault between Warrenheip and Ballarat Junction stopped trains on the Ballarat, Ararat and Maryborough lines, and coaches replaced trains between Wendouree and Ballan. The Courier reported that V/Line and VicTrack were investigating whether attempted cable vandalism caused it. A V/Line spokesperson apologized for the delays. Nobody has connected the rail fault to the chargers, and the cause hadn't been confirmed.As of Tuesday, The Auto Wire could not find a public statement from Victoria Police about the charger damage, and no arrests had been announced.Somewhere near Ballarat there may now be a pile of cut Supercharger cable. In Victoria, cashing it in legally starts with showing a licensed dealer your ID.Ballarat drivers, where did you charge last weekend with both sites dark?The post Tesla Doubled Its Ballarat Supercharger Site. About a Week Later, Someone Cut All 20 Cables. appeared first on The Auto Wire.