A Philadelphia patrol officer assigned to the Northeast was arrested last Thursday for his alleged involvement in a scheme to hack into Comcast’s computer system and solicit fees from cable customers in exchange for adding premium channels to their service or reducing their monthly bills.
John Hoesle, 42, was assigned to the 15th Police District, but has been suspended from the force and will be fired, Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. Hoesle is a 15-year veteran of the police department.
Hoesle was charged in Montgomery County with 101 counts, including theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy and related offenses.
The Montgomery County district attorney’s office identified Hoesle as one of 17 “agents” who allegedly solicited $150 payments from legitimate Comcast customers in exchange for improving their service or reducing their bills.
Another conspirator, Alston Buchanan, 28, allegedly used legitimate Comcast employee usernames and passwords to access the cable company’s customer accounts.
According to charging documents, the conspirators fraudulently modified 5,795 accounts from April 2011 to April 2012 and deprived Comcast of $2.4 million in customer payments. ••
