§ 165.15 Theft of services.\n A person is guilty of theft of services when:\n 1. He obtains or attempts to obtain a service, or induces or attempts\nto induce the supplier of a rendered service to agree to payment\ntherefor on a credit basis, by the use of a credit card or debit card\nwhich he knows to be stolen.\n 2. With intent to avoid payment for restaurant services rendered, or\nfor services rendered to him as a transient guest at a hotel, motel,\ninn, tourist cabin, rooming house or comparable establishment, he avoids\nor attempts to avoid such payment by unjustifiable failure or refusal to\npay, by stealth, or by any misrepresentation of fact which he knows to\nbe false. A person who fails or refuses to pay for such services is\npresumed to have intended to avoid payment therefor; or\n 3. With intent to obtain railroad, subway, bus, air, taxi or any other\npublic transportation service without payment of the lawful charge\ntherefor, or to avoid payment of the lawful charge for such\ntransportation service which has been rendered to him, he obtains or\nattempts to obtain such service or avoids or attempts to avoid payment\ntherefor by force, intimidation, stealth, deception or mechanical\ntampering, or by unjustifiable failure or refusal to pay; or\n 4. With intent to avoid payment by himself or another person of the\nlawful charge for any telecommunications service, including, without\nlimitation, cable television service, or any gas, steam, sewer, water,\nelectrical, telegraph or telephone service which is provided for a\ncharge or compensation, he obtains or attempts to obtain such service\nfor himself or another person or avoids or attempts to avoid payment\ntherefor by himself or another person by means of (a) tampering or\nmaking connection with the equipment of the supplier, whether by\nmechanical, electrical, acoustical or other means, or (b) offering for\nsale or otherwise making available, to anyone other than the provider of\na telecommunications service for such service provider's own use in the\nprovision of its service, any telecommunications decoder or descrambler,\na principal function of which defeats a mechanism of electronic signal\nencryption, jamming or individually addressed switching imposed by the\nprovider of any such telecommunications service to restrict the delivery\nof such service, or (c) any misrepresentation of fact which he knows to\nbe false, or (d) any other artifice, trick, deception, code or device.\nFor the purposes of this subdivision the telecommunications decoder or\ndescrambler described in paragraph (b) above or the device described in\nparagraph (d) above shall not include any non-decoding and\nnon-descrambling channel frequency converter or any television receiver\ntype-accepted by the federal communications commission. In any\nprosecution under this subdivision, proof that telecommunications\nequipment, including, without limitation, any cable television\nconverter, descrambler, or related equipment, has been tampered with or\notherwise intentionally prevented from performing its functions of\ncontrol of service delivery without the consent of the supplier of the\nservice, or that telecommunications equipment, including, without\nlimitation, any cable television converter, descrambler, receiver, or\nrelated equipment, has been connected to the equipment of the supplier\nof the service without the consent of the supplier of the service, shall\nbe presumptive evidence that the resident to whom the service which is\nat the time being furnished by or through such equipment has, with\nintent to avoid payment by himself or another person for a prospective\nor already rendered service, created or caused to be created with\nreference to such equipment, the condition so existing. A person who\ntampers with such a device or equipment without the consent of the\nsupplier of the service is presumed to do so with intent to avoid, or to\nenable another to avoid, payment for the servic
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