The Fight Against Crime: Notes From the Front : Firms Zero In on Cable TV Service Thefts

Doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants--even police officers, for pity’s sake--are among the thieves.

And many of them didn’t think there was anything wrong with taking what they did. They, along with thousands of others in the Valley, stole a look.

They are the cable TV bandits, who illegally tap into a neighbor’s cable wires, who bribe cable company workers to reconnect disconnected lines, who buy descramblers to receive movie channels they don’t pay for and who drive up the rates for all the honest, paying customers. “It’s almost like they feel they have a right to steal,” said Bob Thoreson, head of security for Cablevision Industries, or CVI, a San Fernando Valley cable firm. “It’s never been prosecuted before, and that’s why they do it.”

But cable bandits beware: Laissez faire attitudes toward signal theft are changing, and techniques for finding thieves are quickly improving.

The numbers and boldness of the thieves have made vigilant enforcement a priority, Thoreson said.

CVI provides cable for about 96,000 homes, more than half the households in the Valley, Thoreson said. But he estimates that as many as 20,000 people who pay for basic cable service also have descramblers, or “pancakes,” that illegally provide them with free access to extra-fee movie channels.

In addition, he said, there are probably 15,000 homes with illegal connections, folks who pay nothing but the cost of a one-time bribe or the labor of tapping into their neighbor’s line.

It’s not just the cable companies, the premium movie channels and honest subscribers who are losing out (although lose out they do, to the tune of about $6 million annually in the Valley alone, he said). The city, Thoreson said, would make another $400,000 a year in franchise fees and taxes if all Valley cable watchers paid up.

And when the city feels the pinch, the city is increasingly inclined to punish offenders. New proposals before the Legislature would make cable theft a state felony, in addition to the federal felony now on the books.

But even without changing the law, those who use either the pancakes or illegal hookups can be sentenced to jail or fined up to $5,000 in addition to the cost of their prosecution. For those who steal signals for commercial purposes, such as restaurants or bars, penalties can reach $100,000.

In general, Thoreson said, first offenders are referred for prosecution and offered an out-of-court settlement of a $2,500 fine. For commercial users, the attorneys offer to settle for $10,000.

Since his department began active enforcement a year ago, Thoreson said, it has collected 1,200 illegal boxes--which the company is entitled to seize under the terms of most cable service contracts. His sleuths also are keeping track of 4,700 people who were disconnected for illegal use to see if they reconnect.

And as the thieves get more sophisticated, so do the cable companies. What used to consist of driving around looking for illegal hookups and installing blocks on the lines is increasingly an electronic game of cat and mouse.

Pancake descramblers, Thoreson said, send an electronic signature detectable in the main system, and if he and other cable operators have their way, the presence of that signal coming from a home will soon be enough to refer someone for prosecution.

Barring that, the cable companies can still rely on irate people who report the thieves; the FBI, which arrests those who sell the descramblers and uses the felons’ records to provide lists of customers, and cable company scouts who drive around, looking for hookups with high-powered binoculars and cameras.

CVI also tests its own employees and others who advertise cable hookup services, sending them on setup calls during which undercover “homeowners” offer them bribes. Thoreson said his agents have caught 13 people doing illegal connections and all were former or current employees of CVI or other cable systems.

“Most of the people are embarrassed,” he said. “They just want to settle it and have it done away with.”

One woman, he said, called back and said she was so embarrassed when she was caught that she wanted to take out an ad warning others not to fall into what looks like an easy rip-off.