Stealing Electricity.

[SamTheDog]

Has anyone here actually been done for stealing electricity instead of or as well as the un-lawful broadcasting?

In the past many of us have just plugged-in to lift motor room supplies, ran power cables into light-fittings and other
curious connections... (which we can chat about later). But I've personally not heard of anyone being nicked for the
use of juice... Just the broadcasting....

[SamTheDog]

One setup in Crayford was done in a dis-used public loo. and I added a socket next to the meter. I think martin said he was going to leave some money in an envelope behind the cables in case they got funny about it... If the council ever catch up with me though for drilling holes in the bottoms of lamp-posts and burying cables I will be very pissed-off.... they'll probably want to invoice me for the sodding lamp-posts too.....

[Albert H]

Someone on Thameside was rumoured to have been prosecuted for "abstraction of electricity" from Ealing Council when they used a block in Brentford.

[SamTheDog]

Whenever I used to put the power back on somewhere, I always used to write the current meter reading and the date next to it... That way the amount of juice could be calculated. A simple way (I thought" of showing that you were at least willing to pay for what you had used..... When Martin-C was eventually taken to court for running a station (and became the youngest person to be charged with the offence at the time). he wasn't done for the electricity but just fined for running the station.. (didn't stop him though). I still have the newspaper article here... He used the lovely phrese.. "My Engineer Builds Clean Rigs" when asked about any possible interferance to other services.....

[teckniqs]

A couple of years ago a pal of mine was checking out some low-rise tower blocks in the north west London area when he opened the tank room and found about 50 weed plants growing under loads of lights, so he quickly got the funk out of there sharpish!

....Cultivation of Cannabis regularly uses stolen electricity and I've heard of people getting done for that in addition to growing the skunk but I've never heard of anyone being done for stealing power for their radio gear.

[SamTheDog]

Before I moved further into Kent I lived in southeast London. The house two-doors away from me was let-out to a chinese family. We didn't think that anyone was there, no lights on etc.. Then one night the place burned-out! they had borded-up all of the windows, Bypassed the fuse-box and wired cables all over the place. Hose-pipes ran in through the kitchen all over the house and it was a large cannabis-factory. The fire-brigade / police and the kids took thier turns in and out...

This and a couple of other stories are on my Harry's Playground site.....
http://www.qq22.net/playground/page/e.html

[wazza]

A couple of years ago a pal of mine was checking out some low-rise tower blocks in the north west London area when he opened the tank room and found about 50 weed plants growing under loads of lights, so he quickly got the funk out of there sharpish!

....Cultivation of Cannabis regularly uses stolen electricity and I've heard of people getting done for that in addition to growing the skunk but I've never heard of anyone being done for stealing power for their radio gear.

A bit like this?

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... e-15732883

[davemartin]

Whenever I used to put the power back on somewhere, I always used to write the current meter reading and the date next to it... That way the amount of juice could be calculated. A simple way (I thought" of showing that you were at least willing to pay for what you had used..... When Martin-C was eventually taken to court for running a station (and became the youngest person to be charged with the offence at the time). he wasn't done for the electricity but just fined for running the station.. (didn't stop him though). I still have the newspaper article here... He used the lovely phrese.. "My Engineer Builds Clean Rigs" when asked about any possible interferance to other services.....

Now I wonder who it was who built the rig of his?
Martin Cee has made radio and presenting his life and profession since then. He is even on TV these days.

The thing that usually stopped prosecution for theft of power was the inability to know when and by whom the theft started, and as local authority owned lampposts and lift rooms aren't metered, but given a annual tariff, knowing the value of the theft was impossible to calculate.

[SamTheDog]

yeah one of your hot-boxes.... DM....
Good afternoon.... I had the 48m and FM on this morning!
What's happening your end ? anything interesting?

[davemartin]

yeah one of your hot-boxes.... DM....
Good afternoon.... I had the 48m and FM on this morning!
What's happening your end ? anything interesting?

Not TX wise, but has been said earlier I maintain 4 online RXs.
Once you commit to the RXs any txing is out the window, pretty much. http://remoteradio.changeip.org:8073/

Dave Martin
Founder and manager of WNKR 
Designer of the Commando and Corsair AM transmitters, developed to promote easy to build short wave transmitters for the hobby LBP.

[davemartin]

Talking of LMRs, Sam do you recall if we were out on the lash up town and missed the last train, we would head to the nearest block and using our FB keys we would kip down in a nice warm LMR. After we had stepped over all the druggies on the stairs. We would leave a key in the lock to stop anyone getting in.


Dave Martin
Founder and manager of WNKR 
Designer of the Commando and Corsair AM transmitters, developed to promote easy to build short wave transmitters for the hobby LBP.

[SamTheDog]

I can remember getting lima to collect us from central london one night after missing the night-busses...

[Roobru]

A couple of years ago a pal of mine was checking out some low-rise tower blocks in the north west London area when he opened the tank room and found about 50 weed plants growing under loads of lights, so he quickly got the funk out of there sharpish!

....Cultivation of Cannabis regularly uses stolen electricity and I've heard of people getting done for that in addition to growing the skunk but I've never heard of anyone being done for stealing power for their radio gear.

Not radio related, but I lived in a house for a while and the previous occupants had rewired the house, as they were growing ganja in the place before being raided and evicted. The wiring was such a mess, that you could turn a light switch on in the front room and the lights would go out in the kitchen. It all seemed very random. One day, I was in the shower and heard a loud buzzing noise and sparks started shooting over the shower curtain. I jumped out rather fast and hit the light switch. The owner got a sparky in and they took apart the light fitting. You could see where the plastic had melted numerous time and he was surprised the house hadn't yet burnt down. I moved out shortly after...