Ask Me Help Desk - Neighbor stealing my phone line

Neighbor stealing my phone line

I live in a trailer park, and realized someone that recently moved in some how is using my phone line is this illegal, they are making long distance calls,every time I'm using my phone I hear them picking up trying to use the phone which they don't pay for? Please someone help me how are they doing this

The best thing is to call the police or have the phone company come over and do something about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rd68

The best thing is to call the police or have the phone company come over and do something about it.

I have called the police and contacting manager nothing has been done, the bad thing about this is she was my best friend and the phone company is coming out didn't know if I could get them for fraud

PUt your complaint in writing to the park manager, dispute the phone charges, call the police back, ask them to do their job.

It stealing plain and simple!!!!

We are a doctor's office with three self-rotating lines. There is a professional thief on and off stealing our lines. The phone company came to fix it numerous times and the problem still exists. How to solve this problem once for all. I bet the police would just toss us back the phone company. If I disconnect the lines during non-business hours, will this diconnect the thief's phone?( I want to disrupt his stealing on and off.)

My last phone bill was $900.00. Not my calls. The apartment phone box is unlocked and next to the laundry room. The number called was an internet provider. NO help from the phone company through two sets of registered mail. I am moving on to a lawyer soon. Anyone have any suggested help.

Yes they have either patched wires, or could even be hooked up with a cordles phone that has matched your frequencies if you have a wireless phone also.

But it would not be hard to patch one phone into another line.

If the phone company comes out they should find it without a problem.

Note if their phone has a ringer, walk around with cell phone dialing your phone number and listen for a phone to ring.

But yes basically you contest your phone bill, take the bill in with you to the police and file a theft report on it, call the phone company and ask to report a fraud also. Document each person you talk to , get their name, and employee or badge number, write down who you talk to when and what is said.

Kathi,

Have their phone calls shown up on your bills? It could be a "party line." When I was young, we had one of these. Basically, the phone company did not have enough hardware out in the boonies where I lived, so we shared a phone line with our neighbours. Only one of us could use the phone at a time. Only the proper phone would ring, and we would only be charged for calls we made, but there were times when we'd pick up the phone in the middle of one of their conversations.

Do phone companies still do this any more?

Quote:

Originally Posted by kathi

i live in a trailer park, and realized someone that recently moved in some how is using my phone line is this illegal, they are making long distance calls,everytime i,m using my phone i hear them picking up trying to use the phone which they dont pay for? please someone help me how are they doing this

To answer the HOW they are doing it, is fairly simple. There is a phone interface box somewhere near your trailer. From that box is probably a wire going into your trailer to a phone jack where your phone is plugged in. What they are probably doing is tapping that line from the interface to your trailer.

The trailer park people really aren't responsible for this. The police would probably consider this a petty larceny. The phone company should be able to find this tap and remove it and secure the line against a new tap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rachelchan

We are a doctor's office with three self-rotating lines. There is a professional thief on and off stealing our lines. The phone company came to fix it numerous times and the problem still exists. How to solve this problem once for all. I bet the police would just toss us back the phone company. If I disconnect the lines during non-business hours, will this diconnect the thief's phone?( I want to disrupt his stealing on and off.)

Not sure what "self-rotating lines" are, but for someone to steal your lines, means they have a physical tap on the line somewhere. The phone company should be able to find, eliminate and secure against this tap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kim Carnahan

My last phone bill was $900.00. Not my calls. The apartment phone box is unlocked and next to the laundry room. The number called was an internet provider. NO help from the phone company thru two sets of registered mail. I am moving on to a lawyer soon. Anyone have any suggested help.

This one is harder. You have to prove that a) either someone tapped into the phone box for the apartment (in which case you have a claim against the landlord for negligence) or b) that you did not make those calls (i.e. show no onw as home during times the calls were made).

I really didn't get nothing about this issue cause I couldn't prove it, but have had other issues with these people for example they say something to me every time I see them , and the thing they did was called poilce to say they seen me hit my daughter which I neaver have done, I'm really thinking about moving to get away from these losers

Quote:

Originally Posted by kathi

i really didnt get nothing about this issue cause i couldnt prove it,

Well, unless they had a way to quick tap the line, I can't say how it couldn't be proven. Since the tap would have to be a physical one, there had to be some traces.

If you have an automatic answering machine at the phone company, why not leave your phone off the hook when your not using it or not excpecting a call. This will render the line useless until YOU need it. It's not the ultimate solution but it will definitely frustrate the thieves.

The phone company should be able to trace the long distance calls to verify your credibility and remove the charges.

What I would do is not pay any of my phone bill (since your paying for a private line and it is not private) and get a cell to use instead of a land line.