(a) Acquisition of Services.
(1) No person shall intentionally obtain services for himself or herself or for another, which he or she knows are available only for compensation, by deception or threat, by altering or tampering with the public utility meter or measuring device by which such services are delivered or by causing or permitting such altering or tampering, by making or maintaining any unauthorized connection, whether physically, electrically or inductively, to a distribution or transmission line, by attaching or maintaining the attachment of any unauthorized device to any cable, wire or other component of an electric, telephone or cable television system or to a television receiving set connected to a cable television system, by making or maintaining any unauthorized modification or alteration to any device installed by a cable television system, or by false token or other trick or artifice to avoid payment for the service.
(2) As used in this section, the word "service" includes, but is not limited to, labor, professional service, transportation service, the supplying of hotel accommodations, restaurant services, entertainment, cable television service, the supplying of equipment for use, and the supplying of commodities of a public utility nature such as gas, electricity, steam, water and telephone service. The term "unauthorized" means that payment of full compensation for service has been avoided, or has been sought to be avoided, without the consent of the supplier of the service.
(3) A person is not guilty of theft of cable television service under this section if such person subscribes to and receives service through an authorized connection of a television receiving set at his or her dwelling and, within his or her dwelling, makes an unauthorized connection of an additional television receiving set or sets or audio system which receives only basic cable television service obtained through such authorized connection.
(4) Where compensation for service is ordinarily paid immediately upon the rendering of such service, as in the case of hotels and restaurants, refusal to pay or absconding without payment or offer to pay gives rise to a presumption that the service was obtained by deception as to intention to pay.
(b) Diversion of Services. No person, having control over the disposition of services of others to which he or she is not entitled, shall knowingly divert such services to his or her own benefit or to the benefit of another not entitled thereto.
(c) Grading. Theft of services is a summary offense, and therefore a violation of this section, only if the value of the services obtained or diverted is less than fifty dollars ($50.00). Otherwise, the actor shall be prosecuted under State law.
Amounts involved in theft of services committed pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct, whether from the same person or several persons, may be aggregated in determining the grade of the offense.
(d) Inferences.
(1) Any person having possession of or access to the location of a public utility meter or service measuring device which has been avoided or tampered with so as to inhibit or prevent the accurate measurement of utility service, and who enjoys the use of or receives the benefit from the public utility service intended to be metered or measured by the public utility meter or measuring device so avoided or tampered with, may be reasonably inferred to have acted to avoid or tamper with the public utility meter or measuring device with the intent to obtain the public utility service without making full compensation therefor.
(2) Any person having possession of or access to the location of the distribution or transmission lines or other facilities of a cable television system which have been tapped, altered or tampered with or to which any unauthorized connection has been made or to which any unauthorized device has been attached, or any person having possession of or access to any device installed by a cable television system to which an unauthorized modification or alteration has been made, the result of which tapping, altering, tampering, connection, attachment or modification is to avoid payment for all or any part of the cable television service for which payment is normally required, and who enjoys the use of or receives the benefit from the cable television service, may be reasonably inferred to have acted to have tapped, altered, tampered with, connected or attached to or modified cable television facilities with the intent to obtain cable television service without making full compensation therefor. This inference shall not apply to the act of a subscriber to cable television service, who receives service through an authorized connection of a television receiving set at his or her dwelling, in making, within his or her dwelling, an unauthorized connection of an additional television receiving set or sets or audio system which receives only basic cable television service obtained through such authorized connection.
(Ord. 4394. Passed 9-10-86.)