Caught stealing cable!

I know it's stupid. I moved into an apartment that the landlord has had cable hooked up for over a year or so, then all of a sudden shut it off in the middle of the NBA season. Right when my OKC Thunder are making a playoff push! Anyway... I woke up to the sound of cops banging on my door. My first thought was my two White Widow's in the closet. I'm fucked, right.

Well, I didn't answer the door and eventually they quit knocking. I could hear them and see through the peephole that they were talking to two cable contractors who were showing them the ghetto rigged shit I had hanging out my window . I heard the cable guys say they were taking pictures and filing a report. I also heard them mention they were going to test the line or something. I had already unhooked the cable from my T.V.

Cops left. Cable guys took pictures and locked the box, then started yanking on the cord going through a small crack in the window. If my T.V. was connected it would have done some damage. I guess they knew that it wasn't hooked to anything from the test, maybe? I heard one say "You think the guy is inside?" after he got to the end of the cable. Shortly after, they also left.

I am buggin' out now! I might be able to convince my homeboy to take the plants for a while. They are about a month in the dirt and wouldn't be that hard to move, but it would be a huge favor for me to ask of him. I don't think the cops are going to come back, but I certainly do expect some sort of legal action from the cable company.

The only way my homeboy would want to take them is if I let him keep them. I got more seeds, but this is my first grow and I am attached to these two girls.

My dilemma is getting rid of the plants in case the cops do come back with a warrant (though I do think this is unlikely), or maybe just calling the cable company to make arrangements for a settlement and scheduled payments to avoid prosecution. The latter sounds pretty obvious to me if it becomes clear that the cable company will seek prosecution, I just am not sure if my grow op is at risk or not. Any input?

if you have someone to take them then hope they dont come back today. wait till 3 in the morning to move the plants. well the bars close around here at 2 so you wait an hour till the cops are done arresting the drunks so the streets are empty and you can move stuff in and out your house. i'd say the safest thing to do is just get rid of the plants without them seeing you get rid of them. theres eyes everywhere and you dont want anyone seeing anything suspicious. if they come back today and you feel you have to answer then go outside to talk to them and DO NOT make them suspicious of anything. say nothing more to them then you absolutely have to say. take advantage of every right you have but dont be disrespectful because that will only make them more suspicious. dont be stupid and try lying to them. their cops and dont take them for idiots. if they are hinting on things like the cable being stolen your not gonna be able to lie your way out and the best thing to do would be to take the hit on the stolen cable and use it as your distraction to getting rid of your plants as quickly and carefully as possible.

Solo08 said:

if you have someone to take them then hope they dont come back today. wait till 3 in the morning to move the plants. well the bars close around here at 2 so you wait an hour till the cops are done arresting the drunks so the streets are empty and you can move stuff in and out your house. i'd say the safest thing to do is just get rid of the plants without them seeing you get rid of them. theres eyes everywhere and you dont want anyone seeing anything suspicious. if they come back today and you feel you have to answer then go outside to talk to them and DO NOT make them suspicious of anything. say nothing more to them then you absolutely have to say. take advantage of every right you have but dont be disrespectful because that will only make them more suspicious. dont be stupid and try lying to them. their cops and dont take them for idiots. if they are hinting on things like the cable being stolen your not gonna be able to lie your way out and the best thing to do would be to take the hit on the stolen cable and use it as your distraction to getting rid of your plants as quickly and carefully as possible.

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I am not sure if they will come back or not. The cable guys removed all the evidence by taking the cable out of the window. What they are going to do with that evidence is another story. Is there any reason for the cops to come back? If they do my apartment has only one small window that is covered and nobody can tell if I am here or not. No vehicle or anything, live by myself. I am not feeling to paranoid right now, unless someone has a reason I should be.

i would think weather or not they found what they were lookin for they may need to question you. im sure there was a reason they knocked on the door and i doubt it was to just take the cable out. stealing cable i believe is a federal crime and penalties can be just as bad as the plants your growing depending on where you live. i dont think the cops had any right to enter your home simply because they probably would have if they could. maybe they are suspicious of stolen cable or maybe they think that how you had your cable wired up was dangerous. they wanted to talk to you for some reason and if they had a reason to arrest you and suspected you to be inside the cops have a legal right to search the house. doesnt mean they couldnt it could mean they chose not to. either way id say its not a good thing and you should find out why they needed to contact you. i wouldnt willingly go looking for answers but the only thing you can really do is be more safe then sorry.

You should let us know what cable company your "service" was through. You may be able to save someone else from this crackdown.

cannatari said:

You should let us know what cable company your "service" was through. You may be able to save someone else from this crackdown.

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Cox in OK. Don't think it was a crackdown as much as it was busting some idiot with cable hangin' out his window.

I work for the cable company where I live and they would never do anything like that. And it's one of the 5 big cable companies.

The only people who even look for stolen cable are the auditors, and they are sales guys essentially, and they go and look for lines in boxes and at taps that arent supposed to be hooked up, unhook it, and leave a flyer on your door with their number on it hoping you will call them and get them a sale.

Now if you keep hooking it back up I could see them gettin the police involved, but just for seeing it hooked up? That would have to be a cable company that had a LOT of time and money to waste. Not only would it waste so much time to have to call police every time they saw a UA, but there's not much they can do to you anyway. If they come to your door and said "hey you're stealing cable" and you said, "Oh that must have been the last person who lived here, I didn't know as I don't even have a television" (they can not see from their offices or anything whether a tv is hooked up at a specific house or anything)- theyre gonna need a way to somehow prove that it was you who did it. Waste of their time.

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

where I live the cable comp is god. they can see all and tell me everything I doing in my house pretty much thru my tv! lol. They know what is on or not as they tell me whenever I have a prob. but i need a coded box and blah and they never say shit when they see illegal shit as in on eplace i somehow had free cable for a year when I moved in before i tried to upgrade to internet from dsl like an idiot and they started to charge me 100 bucks. Good luck. How many yu got.

tea tree said:

where I live the cable comp is god. they can see all and tell me everything I doing in my house pretty much thru my tv! lol. They know what is on or not as they tell me whenever I have a prob. but i need a coded box and blah and they never say shit when they see illegal shit as in on eplace i somehow had free cable for a year when I moved in before i tried to upgrade to internet from dsl like an idiot and they started to charge me 100 bucks. Good luck. How many yu got.

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If the landlord had it hooked up, then it's not your problem. Even if they or the cops did come back (which is unlikely unless you try to hook it up again), just tell them it was like that when you moved in and that you're sorry. My buddy was caught over and over again until they took the line coming from the pole and told him if it happened again, they'd press charges (also COX). Don't sweat it....there's not a chance in hell they'll get a search warrant because you were stealing cable. Moving the plants would only make your situation more dangerous.

Frankie says "Relax."

I dunno man... in my area (comcast) the installers and sub contractors are rewarded with cash for turning in people stealing cable, so that they can be prosecuted.

I agree, they wont get a warrant for cable