Windows Phone Thoughts: Florida Man Arrested for Illegally Using Another Person's Wi-Fi

"Benjamin Smith III, 40, was arrested on April 21 outside the St. Petersburg home of Richard Dinon and charged under a Florida law that prohibits unauthorized access to a computer or network, says George Kajtsa, the police department's public information officer. <...> Dinon saw Smith sitting in a parked sport-utility vehicle in front of his house and wondered what he was doing there, then saw he was using a notebook computer, Kajtsa says. <...> 'What made him suspicious was, every time he looked toward the car, the guy closed the lid on his laptop,' Kajtsa says. Dinon called police. When they came to the scene and approached the vehicle, Smith closed the computer again. The police asked him what he was doing and he finally owned up to it, Kajtsa says."

It was bound to happen sooner or later. We all have heard of people who engage in "wardriving" where a person seeks out a Wi-Fi signal with the intention of getting free internet access at someone else's expense. In this case, it unfortunately took the stupidity of the criminal himself for the arrest to happen (this reminds me of the robber who accepted a personal check after his victim informed him that she didn't have any cash in the house). We may be some ways away from being able to identify violators immediately without relying on them to handcuff themselves. I'm just glad that we never saw the security proposition approved that would have held both the victim and the perpetrator guilty. :roll: