In a scary reflection of today's policing priorities, two people have been cautioned in Redditch, Worcestershire over the last month, for nicking Wi-Fi. But the arrested pair weren't residents scabbing a connection from a neighbour. The Redditch Advertiser says that at around 9pm on Saturday, an inhabitant of the Church Hill area spotted a man using a laptop in a car outside a property and called the cops.
The case follows the arrest of a woman in the town centre with a laptop on Sunday, March 18. The 29-year-old woman was arrested in a car parked near Redditch town centre for accessing the broadband connection of a nearby house.
Both arrestees were cautioned with "dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services with intent to avoid payment".
Redditch PC Tony Humphreys told the Advertiser: "We are reminding people with wireless broadband that their connections could be accessed in this way if they do not follow the security advice issued to them by their broadband provider."
"We also want to warn potential offenders that we take any reports of this type of activity very seriously."
The Advertiser account conflicts with a report on the BBC News website that said the man was arrested in the morning "as he had put up cardboard around his car windows, but the light from his computer could be seen through the back window". Hmmm.
