CHATSWORTH : Payment Sought Over Illegal Cable TV Gear

A local cable television company is requiring customers found with illegal cable boxes to pay $2,500 or face a civil lawsuit.

But customers of Chatsworth-based Cablevision Industries claim the company used improper tactics when it confiscated their electronic boxes.

“Our sweeps have been very successful,” Robert Thoreson, the company’s security manager, who has organized the crackdown on customers who can use the boxes to unscramble premium cable channels without paying for them. “We don’t want to sue our customers; we would rather settle with them.”

Thoreson said more than 400 black boxes were confiscated in the company’s last four-month sweep, which included the San Fernando Valley and parts of Long Beach and Signal Hill.

Neighborhoods are targeted for the crackdown if high radiation leaks are measured in the area through electronic equipment, Thoreson said.

Although the sweeps have been successful for the company, some customers caught up in them are angry.

Deborah Stolarz of West Hills said two cable employees bullied their way into her home Nov. 15 and confiscated her illegal black box.

“The way they are doing it is very nasty and intimidating,” Stolarz said. “They were really pushy and kept trying to walk around me at my front door.”

Stolarz said her mother and 6-year-old son were startled when the cable workers threatened to have her arrested if she didn’t surrender the box. She did, but said she is unsure whether she will pay the $2,500.

Thoreson denies that workers are overzealous and said the cable company is within its rights. A state law makes it a misdemeanor to illegally connect a cable box to unscramble signals. The crime is punishable by a $5,000 fine. “We are only asking for half of that,” Thoreson said.

Sig Tinglof, caught up in the same sweep as Stolarz, said he was harassed by cable workers as well.

“They came to the door and said they had to inspect the equipment,” Tinglof said. “They were really rude and wouldn’t go away and I wouldn’t let them in the house.”

Tinglof said the cable workers threatened to call police if he didn’t give them the black box in his living room that Tinglof said was installed by his son’s friend. The workers promised not to prosecute him if he surrendered it, which he eventually did. He maintained he did not know the box was in his house.

Stolarz, Tinglof and some of their neighbors met with an attorney Sunday and are still determining whether to take action.