Comcast Cable Guy Caught Stealing Jewelry
Comcast Cable Guy Caught Stealing Jewelry
Posted 08/09/2011 at 7:38am
| by Paul Lilly
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Remember Jim Carrey as the Cable Guy? He was obnoxious, overstepped numerous boundaries, and even broke a few laws. Be he never stole jewelry from Matthew Broderick. Perhaps Hollywood viewed such an act as too low for the big screen, one in which a cable company adds insult to injury by having its customers wait around all day for an installer to show up, only to have valuables go missing at the end of the day. It wasn't too low for Comcast.
According to a local news report in Atlanta, police arrested a Comcast cable repair man who stands accused of stealing jewelry from some of his customers' homes, one of which happens to be a cancer patient currently going through chemotherapy. Between the stolen goods and Comcast equipment he allegedly took, police say repair man Stephvone Chandler made off with thousands of dollars via pawn shops around town.
Chandler is being held at the Gwinnett Count Jail and faces 13 theft related charges, which probably won't help Comcast's 2010 Consumerist poll standing as the "Worst Company in America." To be fair, not all Comcast installers and repair workers are tools. Back in 2009, two Comcast technicians saved an elderly woman from perishing in flames when her house caught on fire.
Image Credit: movieactors.com
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chipmunkofdoom2
August 09, 2011 at 12:18pm
The men saving the elderly woman from the fire is a good point. The people Comcast employs to do their installs aren't bad by nature, and most of them get the bad reputation of Comcast just because they work for them.
The problem here is greed. Unchecked, unrestrained and limitless greed. Comcast executives are greedy mothers, meaning they cut corners wherever possible. On installers, on services, on support, whatever... wherever they can save, they do. That doesn't mean the installer that has to visit 18 houses in a 6 hour period is a bad person at all.. in fact, he deserves pity in my opinion.
If you have a beef with Comcast that's fine.. I'll be the first to say I'm an unsatisfied Comcast customer.. but this is an anomaly. Comcast employees on a whole aren't bad people. Take it to the top, to the greedy bastards who pay their employees (both Indian and US) poorly and gouge their customers. These are the real criminials.. unfortunately there are no alternatives, almost every teleco out there is like this these days.
Wingzero_x
August 09, 2011 at 8:51am
Seriously, how is this tech news? It's doesn't even have the humorous twists like some of the other simuliar posts have. This guy is just bad!
TerribleToaster
August 09, 2011 at 9:56am
It's tech news because it's about a tech company. Not all technology news is about new PC parts and the occasional research breakthrough. A "true" tech aficionado should know about the inner workings of the technology industry, not just its products.
Also, as more of a general statement about this debacle:
You can't really blame the stealing on Comcast, you can only blame them for hiring a guy who would steal (which is bad, but not as bad as the company doing/endorsing the stealing itself).
Wingzero_x
August 10, 2011 at 7:04am
"It's tech news because it's about a tech company."
--- No, it's not about a tech company it's about a guy who just happens to work for a tech company, doing things that the tech company doesn't consent to.
"Not all technology news is about new PC parts and the occasional research breakthrough. A "true" tech aficionado should know about the inner workings of the technology industry, not just its products."
---> Seriously? You are going to judge a company by the actions of one of it's lowest employees that has no say in any company policies and/or operations? This was an installer not the executive vice president of marketing! I know where you're coming from though, I just don't see any of that here.
"You can't really blame the stealing on Comcast, you can only blame them for hiring a guy who would steal (which is bad, but not as bad as the company doing/endorsing the stealing itself)."
---> Really so you think this guy had "I like to steal things" on his resume? I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but companies only know so much about people, and given the ACLU they know even less.
Fact no where in the articles does it state anything about a Comcast policy of having their employees to pilfer customers valuables during service calls. So trying to claim it's tech new because the guy worked for Comcast is irrelavant.
TerribleToaster
August 11, 2011 at 6:24am
"No, it's not about a tech company it's about a guy who just happens to work for a tech company"
This story wouldn't make much sense if they omitted the fact that he worked for a cable company (since he was stealing on the job, with the job as the method of accessing homes). You can't write this story without Comcast. So yes, it is about a tech company. The other thing is that it's about a cable guy, using his job as a cable guy (a tech job) to rob houses.
"Seriously? You are going to judge a company by the actions of one of it's lowest employees that has no say in any company policies and/or operations?”
Yes, I am. Why? Because they deemed him worthy to be hired. I don't think I need to tell you Comcast is known for their bad public image, examples of poor hiring tactics don't improve it.
"Really so you think this guy had "I like to steal things" on his resume? I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but companies only know so much about people, and given the ACLU they know even less."
Sorry to burst your bubble but companies, especially ones the size of Comcast, are suppose to do background checks and interview the people they hire. If they didn't get any red flags they better have a damn good excuse why, because by giving him the job as a cable guy, they gave him easy access to people's homes. The crux of the whole robbery thing revolves around the idea that he was a cable guy and thus could be invited into to homes.
"Fact no where in the articles does it state anything about a Comcast policy of having their employees to pilfer customers valuables during service calls."
I know, that's what I clarified before. That Comcast is responsible for enabling him to steal, but not necessarily responsible for giving him the will to steal.
"So trying to claim it's tech new because the guy worked for Comcast is irrelavant."
This story will affect Comcast's public image as well as how people view and perceive their cable guy. It could cause a change in policy both within Comcast as well as in the industry with how they hire cable guys as well as the procedures the cable guys go through when working on or in a residence which is pretty damn relevant to the technology industry. Yeah, it's tech news, you don’t have to read between the lines much to see that.
wintercoder
August 09, 2011 at 7:52am
..."Back in 2009, two Comcast technicians saved an elderly woman from perishing in flames when her house caught on fire." ... when improperly installed cable equipment shorted out, igniting the curtains.
somethingelse
August 09, 2011 at 11:30am
hahaha, dude, i was gonna say the same thing, you beat me to it :)
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