[rainfreak]

The issue comes in that you have the equipment needed to illegally use a private network, residential or business, and that is really all that they need as far as proof goes. Kind of like when a teenager carries a screwdriver in his back pocket while out walking around at 1:00am. The police just assume that the teenager is out to steal cars with that screwdriver and just having it is enough to get arrested, with or without a prior record. For the record, the charge for that in Ohio is "carrying criminal tools", and I am pretty sure that it is relevant in most states.

I am not saying that I agree with it completely, but the police have to try and generally cover all the bases. So if you are out wardriving and are just "curious", to them it looks more like you are looking for a network with little or no security that you can exploit it. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who are using wardriving for illegal means, so the police are forced to assume that you are too.

Again, I am not saying that it is right. But I can say that if someone is wardriving near my home or business, I hope that the police will stop them, and arrest them. Because I want my personal and business network secure and, let's face it, WEP and WPA aren't exactly secure...