Comcast Cable Contractors: Capable Criminals

By Sam Bakken in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 12, 2004 6:10PM

This Chicagoist does not subscribe to cable television. He likes to think he has much more important things to do than waste time watching cable TV. But really he just spends entirely too much time fiddling with an antenna (a placebo more than anything) so he can see Judge Mathis roll his eyes without static and periodic blares of white noise. Now he will say he doesn't subscribe to cable because having it installed is too risky.

Evidently Comcast, a cable company with over 2 million customers in the Chicago area, contracts with some shady characters.

From a story by CBS2's Investigative Team:

"When he cut my throat I thought I was going to be dead," said Natasha Saine, another Comcast customer.

Saine was attacked in 1996 in Little Rock, Arkansas by Ceotis Franks an independent contractor paid by Comcast to install their cable service. Franks also, "...raped her, threw her in a bathtub and tried electrocuting her. He even set her bedroom on fire." What an effing psycho!

CBS2 also mentioned two shady contractors here in Chicago. Comcast installer Sydney Bennet stole a wedding ring and engagement ring from a Streamwood home. He had pending domestic violence charges, an arrest in 1991 for beating a man with a baseball bat, a criminal trespass to a home conviction in 1994, a criminal damage to property conviction in 1995 and violated his probation in 1996. Another Chicago area Comcast contractor Joseph Talbot is listed on the states registered sex offender site. Check that site yo! We've got two sexual predators in our neighborhood. Good to know. Or maybe not.

Comcast has said both of the Chicago contractors mentioned above no longer work with them and that they will step up their background check efforts.