I was out walking my dog last night and came upon an extention cord going from my neighbor's house to a green utility box in the neighborhood. Are the stealing something? Can you just hook up an extention cord and get free electricity or something?

The green box is a cable TV "dog house" where service taps are located. Chances are you saw a temporary replacement drop that was put in by the cable company to replace the existing drop that went bad or was cut. Some of the underground cable is orange to identify its type as flooded underground drop or, in an orange duct to protect it. The service techs will lay out the replacement drop to get the customers service repaired and, set up a call for a construction tech to come back out and put it in the ground.

The cord is orange. Is the "dog house" the large green box or the tall green box? The cord is connected to the later.

The phone company ran a temporary orange phone line from the green box in my yard a few months ago after I accidentally cut the original line with a tiller.

Maeve Wrote:
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> The cord is orange. Is the "dog house" the large
> green box or the tall green box? The cord is
> connected to the later.


If its a tall green box its called a "ped" and it could be cable or phone.

Forgot to say if the tall one is next to a shorter fatter one. Then chances are the tall one is phone. Both cable TV and phone use orange lines.

Mind your own business, lady. Don't go pokin' your nose around where it doesn't belong and don't try and be a hero. Call the cable company and pay the consequences.

No snitching, in Fairfax. We will find you

Mind my own business!? I'm trying to find out if I can get some free shit! Times are tough

Tall thin boxes are phone. Large square warm boxes are electric. light green rectangular boxes with rounded edges are cable. (usually say CATV on them)

just cut the wire... if you see the cable/phone company out there within a few days, you'll know it was legit...

otherwise you've done your county a great favor by reducing the crime!

LOL, yeah cut the cable and find out the hard way it's a power line.
Great idea!

Myob, are you trying to sound tough? If your not a poser then you'll tell me what city your in and I'll decide for myself if I'll give your threats any credence.

Direct TV ---

With an account on Direct TV you can add another box for 6.99 a month. If you have a friend with direct Tv see if they will hook it up for you,

Of course you will have to provide the DIsh and box

KeepOnTruckin Wrote:
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> Tall thin boxes are phone. Large square warm
> boxes are electric. light green rectangular boxes
> with rounded edges are cable. (usually say CATV on
> them)


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Mostly, but not always.

Power boxes are fairly obvious. They also have bettwer warning labels on them.

Telco and CATV boxes can, and often are made by the same company so the colors can be very similar. The shape however, is where they differ - most of the time.

An example of this, would be a box called a 1248 cabinet used by the phone company. CATV uses a box of similar proportions, but has a different lock on it.

Most phone boxes use a common locking mechanism while most CATV boxes (if locked at all) employ a hasp type of securing device.

Pedastals used to be "tall and skinny" for the phone co. and "doghouses" for CATV. A company now makes taller (4 ft) x 1ftx1ft for both the CATV and telco. They are identical in color.

- Back to the question at hand. Do not worry about what you saw. It is more than likely a temporary line and will vanish in a few days (weeks) if the ticket was put in to bury a replacement.

As far as stealing services, either company would view that as a crime and your life would forever change.

Frank Wrote:
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> LOL, yeah cut the cable and find out the hard way
> it's a power line.
> Great idea!


Bolt cutters can be obtained with 3' fiberglass handles.

Fiberglass does not conduct electricity.

3 feet? SHIT!

Frank Wrote:
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> LOL, yeah cut the cable and find out the hard way
> it's a power line.
> Great idea!


yea.. because thats how they run power cords.. Coming out of a box wrapped in orange electrical tape...

its a good thing dogs (for example) don't like to bite into random things...

LOL Wrote:
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> 3 feet? SHIT!


Heres the first site that pops up on google:

http://www.galesburgelectric.com/Klein-63136-36-1-2-Bolt-Cutter-w-Fiberglass-Handle-p-6938.html