Be careful where you plug in your phone

[jonny777]

 

A man has accused British Transport police of being “overzealous” and “ridiculous” after he was arrested for charging his iPhone using a socket on a London Overground train.

Robin Lee, a 45-year-old artist based in Islington, was handcuffed and taken to a British Transport Police station on Caledonian Road after his arrest for “abstracting electricity”.

Lee was then arrested on a second offence of “unacceptable behaviour” after “becoming aggressive” when objecting to his prior arrest.

A police spokesman said a “decision on further action would be made in due course”.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Lee said he had been confronted by a police community support officer on the overground train from Hackney Wick to Camden Road on 10 July. The Overground is part of Transport For London’s wider network that also includes London Underground and the buses.

“She said I’m abstracting electricity. She kept saying it’s a crime. We were just coming into the station and there happened to be about four police officers on the platform.

“She called to them and said: ‘This guy’s been abstracting electricity, he needs to be arrested’.”

Abstracting electricity is an offence under section 13 of the Theft Act 1968. It carries a maximum custodial sentence of five years.

Lee, who tweeted about the incident and posted a picture of his arrest sheet which has since been deleted, went on to tell the Standard: “I was just incredulous. It was an overzealous community support officer. They should never have arrested me, they knew it was ridiculous. The whole thing was just ridiculous.”

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The artist was later “de-arrested” for the offence.

British Transport police said in a statement: “We were called to Camden Road London Overground station on Friday 10 July to a report of a man becoming aggressive when challenged by a PCSO about his use of a plug socket onboard an Overground train.

“Shortly after 3.30pm, a 45-year-old man from Islington was arrested on suspicion of abstracting electricity, for which he was de-arrested shortly after. He was further arrested for unacceptable behaviour and has been reported for this offence.”

Electricity sockets on Overground trains are clearly marked with the words: “cleaners use only and not for public use”.

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/13/man-arrested-charging-iphone-london-overground-train

[Baby Deltic]

In all fairness, these trains run on DC' therefore the 240V outlets would be fed from inverters. The waveforms generated for the motors on heavy duty cleaning appliances would probably be rough unfiltered square wave AC with no surge protection as against the clean sinusoidal waveforms with filtering and surge protection that would be suitable for laptops and phones, etc. Had he apologised and wound his neck in instead of ranting, he may have got away with a telling off.

[Torn-on-the-platform]

Overzealous? Probably. On the face of it, certainly.

 

However he only has himself to blame - there's a sign! I'm sure that this at least a little one sided and that his resistance to the PCSO was the major issue.

 

Isn't there something about the purchase of a ticket indicating your agreement to follow the company's rules etc?

[pete_mcfarlane]

Yes, as ever you feel like you are only getting one (self-righteous) side of the story.......

[Fat Controller]

Wasn't a similar charge used against people who made nuisance 'phone calls at one time? It's all a bit reminiscent of the old (Monty Python?) sketch with the new, and rather keen, police officer trying to charge someone with 'smelling of foreign food' and similar. 

[tamperman36]

I hope Arriva dont start taking lessons from this as they've just introduced 2 fleets of new buses in West Yorkshire that are fitted with sockets to charge your phones and pads etc, if they see this it may make them think of charging you to use the sockets and Wifi connection on the bus.

[Catkins]

The report I've seen of this mentions the accused "pushed past" the officers, in my opinion not the best course of action to avoid trouble.

 

And I hope his device has been toasted!

[BoD]

Whilst the law was originally aimed at those who bypass their electricity meter or wire their cannabis farm into the nearest lamppost he did still dishonestly abstract electricity. More so when there is a notice specifically saying not for public use.

I've never heard the term de-arrested before.

[Bon Accord]

Just the latest incident in a long list of many which could have been avoided if the person in authority concerned was a real plod rather than a cheapo fake one - for whom the public has only slightly less respect than a traffic warden.

[Bon Accord]

People who *know* they're wrong have no respect for anyone who points that out to them

The point being that the public invariably do not know they are in the wrong unless someone in proper authority points it out to them.

[Flying Pig]

Wasn't a similar charge used against people who made nuisance 'phone calls at one time? It's all a bit reminiscent of the old (Monty Python?) sketch with the new, and rather keen, police officer trying to charge someone with 'smelling of foreign food' and similar.

 

It was Not The Nine O,Clock News and

was more than just an over-keen neophyte. This case is perhaps closer to

.

[SHMD]

Disproportionate, over zealous and poor design spring to mind here.

 

 

Disproportionate - as he didn't "steal" a loaf but not so much as a few crumbs!

 

Over zealous - as aren't there more serious crimes going on?

 

Poor design - If the socket is not protected then it shouldn't be accessible to the public. (Both protecting the internal circuit AND/OR the public from such exposed public equipment.)

If there is any chance of damage due to the "wrong type of load" being plugged in then, again, sack the designer as suitable precautions should must be designed in.

 

 

The travelling public are being "Nannied" with public areas being over protected and molly coddled.

Not only that but more and more public places are catering to the needs of "power hungry necessary potable device" occasionally daily requiring charging.

Is it no wonder that people use any facilities to hand?

 

Warning notices? - You are having a laugh! "Due to todays wet weather, surfaces may become slippery blah blah blah may destroy your luggage....." repeated ad infinitum until you don't notice them.

 

 

I'm sorry, but I'm with the 'accused' here as if even IF he is obnoxious, loud and arrogant (no evidence). He didn't do anything really wrong and wasn't affecting any other people, except, perhaps, in depriving the next punter his/her chance of charging their phone!

 

 

I hate this miss-use of laws that are applied in an incompletely unintended ways that A/ make Joe/Joanna public hate plod and B/ dilute the true purpose of the original law.

 

Is this "target" driven? I wonder.

 

 

Kev.

(I want Esther Ransom award the official 'jobsworth' award here.)

 

[Baby Deltic]

I agree that the amount of electricity actually 'stolen' would be too minute to even quantify against what the train was consuming. It would be a bit over zealous to prosecute someone over a few milliamps of charge current.

[uax6]

What I found astounding was that the bloke appeared on Vines lunchtime moan show and claimed that 'as the train self generates the electricity, I wasn't stealing anything, because it cost no-one any money'. I wasn't aware that perpetual-motion trains had been invented yet.

 

Sadly yet again, idiots like this are given airspace and now there will be alot more people using the sockets claiming that it costs nothing, something it certainly does not do.

 

Andy G

[Clive Mortimore]

A normal person would have said "Sorry", unplugged their phone. The PCSO would have walked off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then plugged it back in when she was out of sight.

[Horsetan]

This is just another member of the internet generation who thinks everything should be free of charge.

[polybear]

Did he rant?  And if he was "banged to rights" for "extracting electricity" then why did they de-arrest him?  Sounds a bit like the BTP realised they'd screwed up, and/or overstepped the mark, but didn't want to look complete numpties so nicked him again on another charge that would be "their word against his" up in court....

Perhaps they spent last night huddled together in a quiet corner, all writing up their notebooks with the same story

 

I'd be looking for a no-win no-fee lawyer to give them the run-around.......

[roundhouse]

Many trains now have sockets for passengers to use so this may lead to some thinking  that any socket on a train is free to use.

 

However Southern clearly mark the sockets next ot the doors that they are not for public use. Not sure what Overground do though. - will have to look next time I am on one of their trains.

 

Some airports have sockets marked for pasengers use whilst others just have the sockets there and people tend ot huddle round them to charge their devices. Not yet seen any one told not to use them.

 

When in pubs I will ask  if its a small local pub but in Wetherspoons if there is a socket where I am sitting I will make use of it. After all they encourage people to use the free wifi to entice people in to the place ot spend money.

 

These days though most of my devices have enough battery capacity to last or I use a back up battery.

[beast66606]

This is just another member of the internet generation who thinks everything should be free of charge.

 

The problem is a lot of TOCs provide sockets which can be used for low power devices which are free of charge so it could be he made a genuine mistake. To balance things I've had some dealing with PCSOs who think they have a lot more authority than they actually have and (in my case) knew nothing about the actual law ("Can't photograph here mate" etc.) and can be very aggressive when challenged - what we don't know is how he was approached or dealt with by the lady in question.

 

 

It would be easier if "non public" sockets were not of the conventional type, protecting the train and the member of the public.

[roundhouse]

It would be easier if "non public" sockets were not of the conventional type, protecting the train and the member of the public.

Or isolated from inside a locked panel.

[Legend]

I originally thought over zealous police, but if the socket was clearly marked for cleaners use only and you couldn't miss it, then I think they have a point. Arrest is going a bit far, but then you don't know how abusive he became when asked to stop charging

 

There may have been confusion , however. I know that in the Class 385s up here in Scotland there are plugs provided for charging laptops etc, so it's not outside the realms of possibility that he thought it was ok to use. Really does depend on signage.

[station cat]

The bloke is an idiot for not complying with the PCSO's request

 

The police are even stupider.

[Robert]

Many trains now have sockets to allow passengers to use laptops/ charge phones.

 

Admittedly, these are usually at seats - but how does a member of the public know if a socket is for their use or not?

 

If it was clearly marked "Not for public use" then fair enough - otherwise, it is confusing.

[The Stationmaster]

The daft thing about this is that sockets like this have been fitted on some trains for around 40 years (e.g. standard fit from new on HSTs) and always at low level), the power sockets intended for passenger use are at a suitable level (table top on all I've seen) and the difference between the two is plainly obvious to anyone who cares to look and think about it - labelled or not.  I read this story as very much in the vein of 'sorry chum but you shouldn't be doing that' at which the bloke started to get stroppy and mutter about his 'rights' so the PCSOs dealt with him in a manner his behaviour demanded.

 

All of them (PCSOs included as well as the idiot) were probably too ignorant to know the power from that socket could as easily fry his 'phone as charge it and it all turned into him 'standing on his rights' and 'I'm not doing anything wrong innit' while the plastics stood on their dignity and decided to teach him a lesson.  So a lot of stupidity turning into a load of overkill and some nonsense to feed to The Daily Wail.

 

PS  In the past all teh sockets for use by cleanersetc were mounted at low level - I wonder if that has changed?

[polybear]

The use of signs such as "Not for public use" may be just a get out clause for the TOC's, in case of surges, spikes etc. damaging phones, Laptops etc. connected to them.  Then they could freely say "we told you so......so go poke your compo claim for wrecked laptop & all your University work being scrapped....."