{"id":25523,"date":"2026-03-30T11:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/?p=25523"},"modified":"2026-05-11T21:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T01:51:28","slug":"theft-of-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Theft of Services? Maine Law Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What Does Theft of Services Mean?<\/h2>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/John-Scott-Awards.png\" alt=\"Criminal mischief Maine lawyer John Webb can help you if charged with intentionally destroying someone's property.\" width=\"730\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Theft of services is a criminal offense. It occurs when a person obtains services &#8211; available only for compensation &#8211; through deception, threat, false token, or other unauthorized means to avoid payment. Unlike theft of physical property, this crime targets the value of labor, utilities, hospitality, and other intangible services.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding theft of services starts with a simple distinction. Stealing a television from a store is theft of property. Walking out of a hotel without paying for a three-night stay is theft of services. Both are <a href=\"https:\/\/webblawmaine.com\/federal-and-state-criminal-defense.html\">criminal offenses<\/a> under Maine law, but they fall under different statutes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading What Is Theft of Services? Maine Law Explained\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Theft of Services Mean? Theft of services is a criminal offense. It occurs when a person obtains services &#8211; available only for compensation &#8211; through deception, threat, false token, or other unauthorized means to avoid payment. Unlike theft of physical property, this crime targets the value of labor, utilities, hospitality, and other intangible [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-criminal-defense"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Theft of Services in Maine | What It Means<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Theft of service in Maine: definition, penalties &amp; defenses. Get a free consultation with our criminal defense attorney today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Theft of Services in Maine | What It Means\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Theft of service in Maine: definition, penalties &amp; defenses. Get a free consultation with our criminal defense attorney today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Webb Law Firm\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Theft of Services in Maine | What It Means","description":"Theft of service in Maine: definition, penalties & defenses. Get a free consultation with our criminal defense attorney today.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Theft of Services in Maine | What It Means","twitter_description":"Theft of service in Maine: definition, penalties & defenses. Get a free consultation with our criminal defense attorney today.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Webb Law Firm","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/"},"author":{"name":"Webb Law Firm","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a779c0cfb58df839ae19364412f5dc6"},"headline":"What Is Theft of Services? Maine Law Explained","datePublished":"2026-03-30T15:30:20+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-12T01:51:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/"},"wordCount":1802,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png","articleSection":["Criminal Defense"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/","url":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/","name":"Theft of Services in Maine | What It Means","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png","datePublished":"2026-03-30T15:30:20+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-12T01:51:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a779c0cfb58df839ae19364412f5dc6"},"description":"Theft of service in Maine: definition, penalties & defenses. Get a free consultation with our criminal defense attorney today.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png","width":1200,"height":1200,"caption":"he Webb Law Firm has criminal defense offices in Saco and Portland ME, so their top OWI lawyers cover almost all of Southern Maine. We have turned things around for a lot of people. We are ready to discuss your case during your free consultation."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/theft-of-service\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Is Theft of Services? Maine Law Explained"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/","name":"Southern Maine Criminal Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Southern Maine Criminal Attorneys \u2014 Webb Law Firm","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a779c0cfb58df839ae19364412f5dc6","name":"Webb Law Firm","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2afcd916a78ff321dd8392daa3d25f2dc39da8470fd2d178a4e928eb658992f7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2afcd916a78ff321dd8392daa3d25f2dc39da8470fd2d178a4e928eb658992f7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2afcd916a78ff321dd8392daa3d25f2dc39da8470fd2d178a4e928eb658992f7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Webb Law Firm"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbDekU-6DF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25666,"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25523\/revisions\/25666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}