My Neighbor may be stealing my Direct TV?

[gluck75]

First off, my neighbor is a complete scum-bag and has been since the day he moved in. I live on the 5th story of a 6 story apartment building in New York City. In order to clear sightlines, I had to erect a small tower on my roof for my dish. It cost me about $500.

While out at a bar last night, somebody who is friends this scumbag next door to me, informed me that my neighbor was stealing direct tv from me(some friend!!!).

I have to go onto the roof, but from here I can't see that he has run any cables off my dish. Assuming he hasn't, is there anyway possible he can be stealing my signal?

Please let me know what course of action to take. Also, to maintain the integrity of this board, don't outline exactly how he may be doing it, I don't want to give any other lowlifes bad "ideas".

Please...help me Sandbag this Scumbag!!!

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[hancox]

He would need to have a dr'ed smartcard.

I'd call D* and ask about your options - you wouldn't want them catching him off hand, and implicating you in the process...

 

[rockaway1836]

If he has not tapped into your cable he can't be stealing from you. If you find he has cut into your cable give D a call. If he were using a test card in conjuction with splicing in to your lead they will want to know about it. If he is just using your dish and has a registered account with them the problem may be yours to deal with.

 

[herdfan]

Assuming he hasn't, is there anyway possible he can be stealing my signal?

If he has tapped into your feeds from the dish then he isn't stealing from you per se. All he is doing is using your dish for his STB. I agree if he did this without permission then he is a scumbag.

The problem is if he is doing this is if you tune to an odd transponder while he tunes to an even one, then the LNB on your dish gets ruined. Or possibly your STB. If he was smart enough to add a MS into the mix, then you most likely won't even catch him, but he is still a scumbag.

So as long as he doesn't have access to one of your receivers, he is not stealing from you.

 

[Plywodstatebum]

If I were you I'd call D* and tell them your having problems with your signal and ask if they will send someone out to check it. Then have him trace the line and see if the jerk is leeching off your sat. and let him report the guy, That way you don't get shot by your butthead neighbor for turning him in.

 

[fkostyn]

One other thing, if he is "proud" to be stealing satellite, then I'm sure D* would love to know about it.

Also, you're not the noisy neighbor above in murray hill are you??

 

[freakshow]

Unless he has your IRD, he isn't stealing your DTV...he may leeching off you (by using your signal), but you aren't charged for it unless it was added to your account.

As a former D* call center employee I can tell you that there were a lot of people in apartments that shared a single dish with neighbors, of course they have seperate accounts.

 

[Barry Erick]

Well, you would really want someone to take a feed from your dish after[/] the switch, otherwise you would have sat wars from the receivers. But, even then, one should have an agreement for that use. I used to do this for my neighbor until I changed to Dish. Now he has his own dish and can't get 119 where locals are.

 

[BrettTRay]

Why don't you just go to your dish and look and see if there has been any extra wires ran from your dish? I wouldn't call directv for a service call because for one thing they will charge you and second your going to look like a nut if this guy isn't using your dish and you have blowed this thing way out of proportion. Look at the whole picture for a second. If you get this guy in trouble for just using your dish for one of his receivers then he is most likely going to retaliate and beat the hell out of your dish with a baseball bat and end up costing you more money and time than if you would have just left it alone. Sure this guy should have asked but it really isn't hurting anything, is it? I would just confront him personally and in a nice manner and ask him why he did it without asking you first. It will be a whole lot simpler to do it that way.

 

[ADent]

Using one dish for multiple accounts it OK with DTV. Using muliple dishes for one account is fine too. But it is your HW, so its not OK to do anything w/o your permission.

But are you paying an extra receiver fee? Might just call DTV and ask how many receivers are on your account.