I had to laugh at that pen-drive article, it brings to mind the old saying "A fool and his money......"
We've had a few cell-phone towers set on fire over here in NZ, as they have in the UK too, what makes this even stupider, is the fact that none of them in NZ (as far as I'm aware) have actually been 5G towers, they've been either 3G or 4G towers, as 5G is in it's infancy here.
Given that 3G and 4G carries the bulk of the cellphone signals, are any of these idiots going to take the blame if someone is unable to reach emergency services and dies as a result?
I think the only conspiracy here is the fact that so many people have been led down the garden path with a whole load of pseudo-science and just blindly believe it.
We had an issue with thieves getting into the cell equipment structures and ripping out the copper ground blocks, and any copper ground conductors that were exposed. The fencing and barb wire didn't stop them, and razor wire was added where it was legal.
Most of the equipment structures are 'secure', but that didn't stop them. Most now have CCTV and monitored alarm systems, which seems to have stopped the problem.
As to fires, none that I'm aware of.
We are starting to cover exposed copper at tower sites with big globs of roofing tar, hoping the druggies won't bother with it.