CMD31T Connection Lost

I can't get at the logs as I'm 1500 miles away and the modem won't reboot.  But for the sake of discussion let's say that someone somehow managed to fault out the modem - without getting into the house.  I'm assuming that this could be done by them disconnecting the incoming cable from cable company box on the exterior of the house and then reattaching it or something like that.  And the obvious quesiton is why would someone go to all of that effort?  But again, for the sake of discussion, let's say they did. 

So why won't the modem now reboot?  Last year I asked a friend to go to the house and he spent about 90 minutes, unplugging the modem and restarting it.  Disconnecting it from the coax, disconnecting power and then rebooting it, connecting the coax back and every possible we could think of.  We finally gave up.  And on Dec. 19th, mysteriously, it rebooted, on it's own.  I can't be sure that there wasn't a power bump or something that triggered it, but something happened.  It then worked the rest of the winter, without any problems.

I'm hoping something similar will happen again this year.  If not, on Dec. 23rd, I'll be back in Boston for Christmas and I'll replace it.