I thought it looked as if the cable ground might not be truly connected. How many apt. in the building ? What type of wiring method is the building wired with K&T,NM,BX,etc.?
I would start by opening the coax splitters at the main/demark "BE CAREFUL" then test each of those to ground, My guess is you are going to find one that is "Live" while all the rest are not. This would be why the ground was cut (someone didn't know what else to do, so they cut the ground and there issue stopped.) Some where the coax is getting energized now the easy way to find it is open all of the cables and check one by one. Once all the coaxes are disconnected re-connect the bonding jumper to the demark, as you test each coax reconnect them to the now bonded system. When you find the energized one you will be able to start tracing where it goes, you need to find where it is getting energized from,so no one gets hurt. You will most likely get a call that "Joe in unit #4" has no TV and is complaining up a storm.Then you get to see what "Joe" has done to the cable.
I am going to guess one of three things has happened here, 1) the coax has gotten nailed to a phase conductor and accidentally energized. 2) someone has intentionally energized the shield of a coax to make some sort of "bastard circuit" using the shield as the grounded conductor. 3) there is a hot neutral reverse on the circuit somewhere that has energized the coax.
Glad you fixed it, I bet you feel relief from this head scratcher. I love a challange.:smile:
