This article in the NY Times, linked to by the Instapundit, brings back memories of some 8 years ago when I was briefly arrested in Japan for stealing electricity. I guess I was rather ahead of the revolution, and boy that's not a good place to be.
You see it was like this. I was travelling from Australia to Tokyo via Hong Kong (job interview) and Seoul (change planes) and I was due to spend the night in Tokyo with some friends that I knew. I'd stayed there once before and thought I remembered the way from the nearest station, but just in case I had their phone number entered in my Stinkpad laptop somewhere but a slight miscalculation on the flight to Seoul meant that its minimal battery life was expended.
I should have had time in Seoul to recharge but the plane was late so I didn't. Ho hum I thought well I'm sure there will be a spot in Tokyo Narita where I can find a free power spot to charge up. Well there wasn't one visible. So I made my way to the station and thence via about three changes of train to the station nearest my freinds house. Unfortunately I still hadn't found a charging spot but I wasn't too concerned because I was fairly sure that I remembered the way. After all I knoew it was only a couple of mnutes from the station.
Well embarassingly I didn't. I spent half an hour wandering around and failing miserably to recognise any landmarks - I believe someone had knocked down a key building in my absence but I could be worng. So it was down to plan B. Find a power socket for the laptop. Well that was going to be EASY. Tokyo is the city of the vending machine and vending machines need power. Unfortunately despite the lateness of the hour it was hard to find a vending machine that was sufficiently secluded that no one would notice if it was powered off for long enough for my laptop to boot up and get the phone number.
I nearly made it in that I had just written the number down and was unplugging the cable when the cops showed up. In force. It wasn't just one PC Plod-san it was two squad cars full showing up at both ends of the street to make sure I couldn't escape. I think I was a disappointment as I failed to do anything other than continue to return the vending machine to working order and then allow myself to be escorted to the local police station. There, after sort of getting my point across in fractured Japanese I was able to make my phone call and get my friend (and my wife who had also arrived that evening) to pop down and let me get out of hock. Once they came it was all explained better, I was warned that I could have faced a charge of electricity theft (Denk Dorobu), I wrote a Gommenasai (apology) letter to Coca Cola and the local police, and I was told to bugger off and not do it again.
These days I suspect the act is rather more common...