Stealing electricity in Poland... being resourceful or theft?

ukpolska:

A polish guy in Mragowo got fed up with the speed camera outside his house so he put it to use and buried some cables under the ground, connected to the electricity camera supply, and used it for himself and his neighbour for over a year before he was caught lol
I always said the Poles were very resourceful :)

ukpolskaThreads: 51 Posts: 2,238 Joined: Oct 23, 06 MEMBER	Feb 8, 09, 14:32 / #
A polish guy in Mragowo got fed up with the speed camera outside his house so he put it to use and buried some cables under the ground, connected to the electricity camera supply, and used it for himself and his neighbour for over a year before he was caught lol I always said the Poles were very resourceful :)

Wroclaw Boy	Feb 8, 09, 14:43 / #
ukpolska: I always said the Poles were very resourceful Resourceful indeed, a building collapsed on my land last week some old guy asked me if he could take the bricks, i said ofcourse but dont touch the metal. I went down to inspect the building later that day to find a whole group of them scales at the ready with approx 750 kg of steel support beams which had been used for the roof of this building. The whole thing was obviously a scam to steel the metal and sell for scrap, the value of which is around 600 PLN. You should have seen their faces when i shouted at them. First they pretended to not see me and tried to scurry along with these 150KG beams, and then I shouted even harder. Most of them dissapeared back to their homes and left a couple there to explain what had happened. I was pissed to say the least. I reckon they collapsed the whole building with the intention of steeling the metal and then once I discovered what had happened they would have claimed I said they could have it. Cheecky buggers!

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07	Feb 8, 09, 14:48 / #
With the amount of money the Energa company have taken from me i would love to steal some electricity from them....i am sure the whole village is connected to my meter....

ukpolskaThreads: 51 Posts: 2,238 Joined: Oct 23, 06 MEMBER	Feb 8, 09, 15:55 / #
Wroclaw Boy: Cheeky buggers! Yeah I had a similar problem this Christmas where I have just bought some new land with the intension of building a couple of houses there. The neighbour contacted me and asked if he could climb the trees and cut down the mistletoe in order to sell it and being new and trying to fit in I agreed, only to find when I turned up the next week they had cut down six 20mtr tall trees on my land and just taken the mistletoe. Still he is in big trouble with the local authorities as you need a permit to cut down trees over a certain height... last weekend the Police were round his house with a warrant and after a visit to myself where I gave my position they are going to throw the book at him. lol

sausageThreads: 25 Posts: 1,053 Joined: Sep 21, 07	Feb 8, 09, 15:58 / #
ukpolska: LINK How about a working link... Man Uses Speed Camera to Power Neighborhood

Wroclaw Boy	Feb 8, 09, 16:53 / #
ukpolska: you need a permit to cut down trees over a certain height Heaven forbid cutting down trees, even if there on your land. Ive had a few fall down but even then you cant chainsaw without permission. ukpolska: they had cut down six 20mtr tall trees on my land and just taken the mistletoe. they'll be in big trouble.

SeanBMThreads: 41 Posts: 8,726 Joined: Mar 10, 08	Feb 8, 09, 16:58 / #
ukpolska: cut down six 20mtr tall trees I recently had a hefty bill for cutting down 5 trees. I did a deal with the town council though, I am going to plant close to a thousand trees instead of just giving them the money. I thought this was fair. These guys will get fined and probably another fine for doing it without a permit.

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07	Feb 8, 09, 18:44 / #
Wroclaw Boy: even then you cant chainsaw without permission. I understood it was ok to cut up any trees that had fallen down , as long as you didn,t help them to fall down in the first place.....

ukpolskaThreads: 51 Posts: 2,238 Joined: Oct 23, 06 MEMBER	Feb 8, 09, 18:51 / #
sausage: How about a working link... Man Uses Speed Camera to Power Neighborhood Cheers sausage :) but really it's not rocket science to take the extra URL off the link, but thanks anyway.

Lir	Feb 8, 09, 18:55 / #
wildrover: i am sure the whole village is connected to my meter.... Turn your power off at the mains one dark evening and then see if this plunges the village into darkness lol.........you'll know then haha ! Wroclaw Boy: Heaven forbid cutting down trees, It's just the same in the UK really. Well it is where I live, anything that has more than three leaves on it is protected and has a preservation order on it. I needed to get 5 trees <not mine my neighbours> cut back as they were taking all the light from a large part of the garden. Planning Officer had to call, and he brought his paperwork with him. Every single branch was listed and numbered. The trees aren't really anything special, they're nice though.

Lir	Feb 8, 09, 19:36 / #
wildrover: .i will have em all coming round my house to watch telly..... But that's good because all those people<collectively> will emit hot air into the room, thereby making the room hot! So, you won't need to spend any money on heating costs and if you charge them an entry fee <like a can of beer or two or a can of beans or two etc etc > you could stock up your cupboards at the same time. Of course you could insist on them bringing their own tea, coffee and milk etc you provide the water then charge them for a hot drink! The potential is enormous ! :)

JohnPThreads: - Posts: 544 Joined: Sep 8, 07	Feb 8, 09, 19:54 / #
I used to hear about people running a coil next to a main transmission line to steal power, but hadn't heard about taking it from a traffic camera. That's pretty neat. Yes its stealing, but you still have to respect the inventiveness of the thing... John P.

osiolThreads: 59 Posts: 4,714 Joined: Jul 25, 07	Feb 8, 09, 21:02 / #
wildrover: the Buraks around here seem willing to take anything that is not nailed down , actually i should change that statement , a few things that were nailed down went missing.... It's bad when the hammer goes missing because it was the only thing you couldn't nail down. Just because you can't pick it up or touch it, doesn't mean it's not stealable. Perhaps the punishment should be for the thief to pick up something with however-many volts passing through it. Or is it the wattage rather than the voltage that's dangerous. Who'd like to find out?

ukpolskaThreads: 51 Posts: 2,238 Joined: Oct 23, 06 MEMBER	Edited by: ukpolska Feb 8, 09, 21:21 / #
osiol: Just because you can't pick it up or touch it, doesn't mean it's not stealable. Perhaps the punishment should be for the thief to pick up something with however-many volts passing through it. Or is it the wattage rather than the voltage that's dangerous. Who'd like to find out? Which reminds me... Daring theft Eight years ago near Lublin railway workers were doing some maintenance on a stretch of railway between Lublin and Pulawy. It must have been an inside job because someone tipped the crooks off who preceded to steal the overhead power cable for over 1 klm. God knows how they did it, but the newspapers were reporting it more out of respect for the criminal feat than the actual crime... Strange !!!

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07	Feb 8, 09, 19:30 / #
Lir: Turn your power off at the mains one dark evening Noo can,t do that....i will have em all coming round my house to watch telly.....

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07	Feb 8, 09, 19:42 / #
Lir: The potential is enormous ! Ha , so would be the amount of stuff missing after they had gone.....I have many lovley Polish friends , but the Buraks around here seem willing to take anything that is not nailed down , actually i should change that statement , a few things that were nailed down went missing....

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07	Feb 8, 09, 21:19 / #
osiol: It's bad when the hammer goes missing Yeah they took all my good ones....and even my nails.....I did put up a sign to say bandits would be shot....but somebody stole it....

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07	Feb 8, 09, 21:37 / #
osiol: is it the wattage rather than the voltage that's dangerous. Its the Watts that are deadly....i had a shock of several thousand volts from a racing motorcycle ignition system..not pleasant , but not a killer as there were not so many of them watts in it....

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 [Suspended]	Feb 10, 09, 17:02 / #
wildrover: actually i should change that statement , a few things that were nailed down went missing.... In today's economy nails are fairly valuable!

SeanBMThreads: 41 Posts: 8,726 Joined: Mar 10, 08	Edited by: SeanBM Feb 12, 09, 18:57 / #
A mate of mine from South Africa was burgled years ago, strange thing was that nothing was taken. They found the sound system in the middle of the floor. Then they noticed a knife with a big burn mark in it on the floor next to the cable that had been cut. So they puzzled it together from the clues. Many people don't have electricity. So the burglar must have thought that the sound system was tied to the wall and tried to cut through the 'rope', which obviously led to a shocking experience and the flight of the wanna be burglar. There are many many very funny stories from S.A.(others very serious) and every time I see this post I think of this particular story.

joepilsudskiThreads: 44 Posts: 2,529 Joined: Apr 27, 07	Edited by: joepilsudski Feb 12, 09, 20:51 / #
ukpolska: A polish guy in Mragowo got fed up with the speed camera outside his house so he put it to use and buried some cables under the ground, connected to the electricity camera supply, and used it for himself and his neighbour for over a year before he was caught lol I always said the Poles were very resourceful :) In this case, I say 'resourceful'!...Did you know that the Serb Nikolai Tesla, demonstrated a system for wireless/free transmission of electrical power early in the 20th Century...It was suppressed by the bankers/owners of utility company stock because they wanted to sell this natural resource.