As legend goes it is maybe possible to steal electricity from power lines in a wireless way (also see this and this related questions). The legend continues that once someone does that he gets caught by the electric company.
Suppose I actually do it - dig enough wire under a power line, plant some fast growing weeds so that the fact of digging is concealed so that there's no obvious disruption and this way steal say one kilowatt of power.
How would the electric company detect that wireless theft?
Answer
They can't. They monitor the line and notice that a very small fraction of the produced power doesn't arrive at the transformer at the end of the line. Conclusion: over those several kilometers there's a leakage. There's no way to know where. BTW, the amount of power they lose this way is probably far less than cable and transformer losses.
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