Pervert Piggybacker in Poke Pending Prosecution

A guy kept going to a coffee shop parking lot to siphon off the free wireless signal so he could surf the internet. He would never spend money in the coffee shop and the barrista got bitter and called the cops. The cops told him to go away, and when he came back he was arrested for “theft of services.”

It is not a crime to use an open wireless access point, and this case may get overturned. However, the prosecutors may also have a point here. If the wireless is intended for paying customers, then maybe this man was stealing services?

Oh yeah, the guy was a sex offender. He was probably trolling MySpace for victims. From KATU here:

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Brewed Awakenings, with its pithy name, artful drinks and wireless Internet service, has found itself unexpectedly percolating on the forefront of high-tech law.

“He doesn’t buy anything,” Manager Emily Pranger says about the man she ended up calling 911 about. “It’s not right for him to come and use it.”

Pranger says 20-year-old Alexander Eric Smith of Battle Ground sat in the parking lot in his truck for three months, spending hours at a time piggybacking on the coffee shop’s wireless Internet service for free.

When deputies told Smith to knock it off, he came back and is now charged with theft of services.

“It’s a repetitive occurrence and it’s something that is borderline creepy,” says Pranger.

As it turns out, Smith is a Level One Sex Offender, but whether he in fact committed a crime by not buying a single tall latte before accessing the Internet, well that remains to be seen. The sheriff’s office and prosecutors are now reviewing the case.