What Irks Me..

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Now Im no goody two shoes. But Ive never really stolen anything in my life. I know there are those that steal cable, steal Dish back when it was trendy and were proud as hell doing it. They loved to show off their free services. Ive even had people tell me that they pirate cable when they find out what I do. And guess what? If I know where they live, it ends within the next few days.

I mean, come on, this is how I make my living? This is what I take pride in doing. This is how I pay the mortgage and bills. I always hear the same excuse as well. "Cable charges so much!! Its insane! Screw them! Im not paying for this crap!!"

But they sure will risk their life climbing a pole to activate services, they sure as hell will compromise their morals and values to skulk around at 2 am trying to defeat a anti theft device. Apparently it IS worth it? Apparently it IS a service that has a high enough value that stealing it is such a popular passtime.

Original Article Here

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Very good article. It amazes me at times what people will do for cable.

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Yeah for some reason cable theft is something that has always bothered me since I started this job. For the most part I'm pretty diligent about putting an end to it when I see it too. It bothers me a little that most of the guys I work with could care less about it, but I think the main reason for that is that they're usually too lazy to do the work assigned to them much less do something that might take an extra 15 minutes or so to help the company.

I don't run across many problems with theft at single family homes but I work in an area with a lot of multi-family houses and MDU's that if I really looked hard I could probably find a new culprit everyday. I just ran across one this past Friday as a matter of fact. Four family house I had just done an install at a few weeks ago for the second floor. When I was about to leave the guy from the first floor came out and asked about his cable line, which he only had B1 and HSI service on it. He said he worked for one of the dish companies so that's where he got his video service from but wanted to rerun his a/o because he thought another apt was tied into it (which I'm pretty sure it was). I drove past there on Friday & happened to look at the side of the house & saw what appeared to be a gold splitter of some type over there. I checked it out & sure enough he ran a new line to his unit, but also split off the second floors line (with Exp basic) with an RCA splitter and left the leg open on the splitter that was meant for him. I put everything back the way it was supposed to be, with security sleeves this time. Although that won't matter because he has the tools to make new fittings anyway. I did put a note on his line about cable theft being a crime & notated his acct though. I'll have to remember to drive past again in a couple weeks to see if he's done it again.

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i think the biggest problem is that cable companies don't crack down hard enough on it. I mean, they audit and have it discod, but rarely prosecute or punish in any way.

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So True. I do enjoy cutting them off in fun and interesting ways. 

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So True. I do enjoy cutting them off in fun and interesting ways. 

A co-worker of mine when I was a contractor was paid to do an audit on a 5 unit house.  One of the tenants on the second floor had been a repeat offender of breaking into the MDU and connecting himself up.  Once they stopped that, he figured he would cut into another line running on the outside and install a splitter.  The guy obviously didn't have a drill, so he hung the line out of the window and split it on the side of the house, trying to hide it behind the shrubs.  My co-worker had been there about four times and caught this apartment three times.  This time, he knocked on the door.  No answer.  So, he disconnected the line from the splitter and re-barreled it together.  Then he gave a nice tug on the line that was going through the window.  ****SMAAAAAASH****.   As far as he knew, he never did it again and never reported his TV was "vandalized".

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Then he gave a nice tug on the line that was going through the window.  ****SMAAAAAASH****.   As far as he knew, he never did it again and never reported his TV was "vandalized".

Awesome! I love stories with happy endings! 

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Did someone say "happy endings"?!

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Awesome! I love stories with happy endings! 

Me too.  Although happy endings are better in real life.   

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Then he gave a nice tug on the line that was going through the window.  ****SMAAAAAASH****.

Man, I can't tell you how many times I did the same thing. Gives you a sense of accomplishment. 

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Then he gave a nice tug on the line that was going through the window.  ****SMAAAAAASH****.

Man, I can't tell you how many times I did the same thing. Gives you a sense of accomplishment. 

As much as I hate thieves, I couldn't actually do something like that.  But it is funny to hear from someone who can.  The best I could do is cut the line in ten pieces and leave it lay on their doorstep.

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he gave a nice tug on the line

Well at least the TV got a 'happy ending'.   

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Comcast doesn't care about me, so now the feelings are mutual.  I don't go out of my way to help the company anymore.  apparently satellite hacking is steal the rage. (notice my pun?)

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Comcast doesn't care about me, so now the feelings are mutual.  I don't go out of my way to help the company anymore.  apparently satellite hacking is steal the rage. (notice my pun?)

That's a  poor attitude... Now goto the tech closet and make 100 6' long jumpers !

hehe.. reminds me of the story I remember little of... goes something like...

Ted and Roy get hired on the same day by the rail road co.
Of course, they're put on the tracks slinging rail road spikes like all new hires do.
30 years go by and Ted and a new guy are on the tracks with the crew slinging some new spikes in when a chauffeured Bently pulls up.
Out steps the new CEO, and it turns out it is Roy.
Roy walks over to Ted and gives him a 30 years award and a speech and says lunch is being catered in and shakes Ted's hand and then walks back to the chauffeured  car and rides off.
The new guy looks puzzled and looks over at Ted and says "Didn't you and Roy start at the same time"
Ted says "Yeah... sure did". New guy ponders for a moment and the says "Then why is Roy the CEO and you're still a laborer ?"
Ted says "30 years ago I went to work for $2.00 an hour... 30 years ago Roy went to work for the rail road co."

Leaders and followers my friend... Leaders have a name and followers have a badge #

My company is pretty good about putting thieves where they belong. We tag EVERY drop, lock every ped, and will take any perps to court for an 2nd offense for damages(cost of repair) and time hooked illegally. Last year we had one woman go to jail for an failure to appear. My CLI detector is on anywhere my truck rolls and if I don't have time ATM, I jot the address down and hit it the next day.

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If you find yourself in Virginia, gimme a ring... could use ya here!