Someone stole my cable

tvbrat

This morning between 10:30am and 11:30 am my tv reception went.
So I did all the usual checking stuff, but both analogue and digital were gone.

I went outside and noticed that my connection had been pulled out and a another connection had been plugged in and going through a part open window of the top floor next door.



The house where I live is on a terrace, 3 stories high and my feed comes from next door's outside box. This was done a few years ago when I got the digital, because the drop line was shorter.

I rang NTL/UPC got through to their faults department and explained the situation, the guy took all the details spoke to his supervisor and told me he would flag it for their "piracy unit". The long and the short of it is, I now have to wait until Tuesday until they can sort it out because there are no engineers working in my area, but they will try sooner to sort it out.

I know its not NTLs fault that someone has jacked into my feed, but as I live in the city centre I thought they could respond much sooner.


Has this happened to anyone else
Will I get compensated for the loss of services

yayamark

Did u ring the gardai?

Surely thats an option.

watty

Sympathy extended.

Unbeliveable!

The Garda can take action as it is Theft of service, criminal offence and not just civil copyright infringement (It may be that too).

The Garda can "ask" the person to restore your connection.

tvbrat

watty wrote: »

Sympathy extended.

Unbeliveable!

The Garda can take action as it is Theft of service, criminal offence and not just civil copyright infringement (It may be that too).

The Garda can "ask" the person to restore your connection.

Thanks for the sympathy Watty
I did consider the Garda, but I have to live here and think about my family.
With a bit of luck UPC will sort it out, before Tuesday, as far as I know they will take action.

Once again
Thanks

CO19

Is there anyway you can plug the cable back in to your socket yourself ?

Jumpy

I would recommend taking photos.

maxg

CO19 wrote: »

Is there anyway you can plug the cable back in to your socket yourself ?

Do you think the other bloke would so easily give up free cable.

tvbrat

CO19 wrote: »

Is there anyway you can plug the cable back in to your socket yourself ?

Its up fairly high and on the house next door, so I would need permission from the landlord/ owner guy, I did say this to NTL but they advised against messing around with their system, in case I knock someone else off.

Jumpy wrote: »

I would recommend taking photos.

Yeah I took some photos for NTL

maxg wrote: »

Do you think the other bloke would so easily give up free cable.

There is a group of them, I think they are from Asia.

tvbrat

Mr.S wrote: »

tell them to stop stealing your cable then! and that you called NTL, police etc etc

As I said in an earlier post, I have a family and don't wont any hassle from them.
I have however left a voice mail with their landlord, so am waiting to hear back from him.

I really dont want any interaction with them as it would be so easy to loose my temper and end up in prison. Its just annoys me when I look up and see my connection just dangling there.:mad:

PauloMN

tvbrat wrote: »

Its up fairly high and on the house next door, so I would need permission from the landlord/ owner guy, I did say this to NTL but they advised against messing around with their system, in case I knock someone else off.

Gotta love NTL. Not worried about you falling off a ladder, but concerned about someone else's connection getting messed up. :rolleyes:

As for the Gardaí, I wouldn't bother unless it becomes a regular occurrence that NTL can't sort for you. I wouldn't consider it important enough to call them at this stage, and they'd likely not do anything until it becomes more of an issue TBH. I know it's annoying, and I'd be well pissed off if someone nicked my cable, but wait at least until NTL have taken a look. Like you say, you have to live there. Best let NTL deal with them for the moment.

Solair

I'd call the Gardai, it's vandalism etc and there's not much to prevent them pulling a similar stunt with a phoneline or something and running some poor unfortunate up an enormous phone bill.

needs to be nipped in the bud.:mad:

subway

i presume after ntl reapir the cable they will put some sort of locking device over the connection points?

Eire Go Brach

So hey what happened?

tvbrat

Just a quick update

On tuesday NTL reconnected the cable to a different socket,
the connection going into the window is still connected,
I guess they have different guys to deal with theft.

I have still not heard back from the landlord.
I should be getting a discount on my next bill.

So I will just have to wait and see if the landlord gets in touch,
if I get a discount on the next bill and how long the cable lasts going
through the window.

Gadgie

Is it possible that next door thought you were stealing their cable? The tap is attached to their house after all (unless it's next door on the other side). They could have decided to disconnect you and give themselves an extra point at the same time.

lensman

there should have been a locking nut on all unused outputs on the outdoor box, a special gadget is needed to unscrew this although knowing ntl anything is possible, maybe they never put one on in the first place !!

JimmyCrackCorn!

Reconnect it and pour concrete on it.

Or if your in a really bad mood. Disconnect it and run 240v up the illegal tap for just a second make sure you dont run it down NTLs cable(which im sure is not legal).:D

Jumpy

JimmyCrackCorn! wrote: »

Reconnect it and pour concrete on it.

Or if your in a really bad mood. Disconnect it and run 240v up the illegal tap for just a second make sure you dont run it down NTLs cable(which im sure is not legal).:D

Yes, starting a fire in the same building as where you live

smrt.