Not a thief? Better check.
If you knowingly receive cable programming service without ordering it, and the company finds out, you are almost certainly liable for any bills from the day the cable was installed
Cable was never installed at my house.
and quite likely for felony criminal charges
Yup. The prisons are probably filled to the brim with "illegal" cable viewers these days.
Do you honestly know of one single case where a person (who wasn't some out-of-work cable monkey making money illegally installing the whole neighborhood) was actually prosecuted?
Cable companies don't want the bad publicity, nor do they want the public to know how their system works. As a result, the laws designed to protect these monopolies are rarely enforced.
As one who benefits from lax enforcement of state sodomy laws I should have thought you would be able to appreciate this fact.
Perhaps you should try calling the cable company with a 'hypothetical question' based on what "a friend" of yours says.
No problem. I'll just call them from a Kentucky area code and give my name as Dennis. Think that'll be enough to fool 'em?