[1819] in Humor
HUMOR: He wound half a mile of copper cable around his garage.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew Bennett)
Thu Jan 16 00:52:02 1997
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 00:48:15 -0500
To: humor@MIT.EDU
From: abennett@MIT.EDU (Andrew Bennett)
From: Espacionaute Spiff domine! <MATOSSIAN@aries.colorado.edu>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 11:05:02 -0500 (EST)
From: Keith Bostic <bostic@bsdi.com>
Forwarded-by: ROSAPHILIA <rugosa@escape.com>
Forwarded-by: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Boast And Be Busted
A US company is nailing Net users who steal electricity, reports Mike
McCormack.
A sting operation is helping British power companies to catch electricity
thieves who use the Internet to boast of their exploits. The power
thieves, who are reckoned to steal more than =A350 million worth of
electricity every year, may soon find an inspector calling, armed with a
meter reader and print-outs from Internet discussion groups.=20
Scottish Hydro-Electric, based in Perth, is the first British power
company to sign on to a pioneering anti-theft initiative launched by the
International Utilities Revenue Protection Agency in America. IURPA agents
send queries to Usenet discussion groups asking for advice on stealing
power and tampering with line meters. They then forward the names of
respondents to their local power companies.=20
Dozens of power thieves who sent replies have already been prosecuted in
America by power companies who discovered magnets attached to meters,
underground cables connected to local mains and, of particular interest
to the Drug Enforcement Agency, a number of professional herbalists
using bootleg power to light their crops.
Scottish Hydro-Electric received its first tip-off from the scheme
earlier this year, after attending a conference attended by IURPA
delegates.
"We had heard what they were up to, and it all sounded very American to
us. Then one of their delegates said 'We just found a guy in your area -
he even gave us his phone number'," a spokesman said.
"We don't know how many people we might catch this way but power theft
is a serious problem and we're going to take any advantage offered to
us."
Scottish Hydro-Electric traced more than 1,600 cases of power theft last
year, reporting 395 customers to the Procurator Fiscal.
And two English regional suppliers have expressed their interest in
joining the scheme, which serves power companies around the world. IURPA
has received tips from power thieves in Asia, Scandinavia and Africa -
wherever the Internet has gained a foothold.
The Office of Electricity Regulation says 3,920 people in Britain had
been disconnected in the year to last September for theft. Another
50,000 cases are thought to be discovered by power companies every year.
Recent cases of power theft discovered by British inspectors included
customers tunnelling out to roadside mains cables and splicing into the
supply; a garage taking its night-time power supply from the nearest
lamp post; and domestic customers drilling holes into meter boxes and
attempting to stop the counter wheels from turning.
According to a Scottish Hydro-Electric spokesman, these are among the
most dangerous of money-saving schemes. "Playing around with your supply
is a great way to end up in the morgue. These are high voltages being
diverted in very unsafe ways."
But the prize for most innovative power theft scheme must go to an
American with a high-voltage line close to his house. He wound half a
mile of copper cable around his garage, creating a giant induction coil
capable of powering most of his home appliances.
[The Telegraph, 7th January 1996]
