Unidentified mystery wires and cables in the yard after moving in
Homeowners often find stray cables sticking out of their yard that were left behind from a previous period of vacancy. This leaves them unsure whether the wire is hazardous or can be safely ignored, and hesitant to touch it without knowing what it connects to.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Shoving the wire back into the rocks
- 2Burying the cable
- 3Leaving it alone
- 4trying to find labels printed or embossed on the cable jacket
- 5tracing where either end terminates
- 6using a metal detector to trace its path
- 7checking if there are unknown breakers
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Google is suggesting it's old school telephone wire. If like live people thoughts.”source ↗
“Absolutely no idea. It's not close to anothing. Its like 200 yards away from any structure.”source ↗
“Nothing. I have a detector, but it's terrible. Only found this wire because we are digging a pond and are unearthing what appears to be an old wagon wheel.”source ↗
“I’m curious what this hookup is. I am HOPING it’s an outdoor water hookup on my patio that could connect to a hose or outdoor sink.”source ↗
“My dreams are crushed as a pottery artist but I appreciate the help.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Is this copper wire broken?
- 13How to identify unknown animal burrows in your yard
- 2Is this outlet backstabbed or backwired?
- 3How do I figure out what these HVAC control wires do?
- 5What is this random dripping exterior pipe on my house?
- 8How do I identify strange white patches and spiraled growths on my lawn?