Stealing Wi-Fi

A Tampa-St. Petersburg (wait, isn't the name St. Petersburg an unconstitutional violation of separation of Church & State?) man is being charged with stealing Wi-Fi by sitting outside another man's house and using his Wi-Fi signal (HT: Badger Blogger). If convicted, Benjamin Smith III would be facing a third-degree felony. I have a fundamental problem with this. If you set up the appropriate safety measures on your Wi-Fi, and somebody hacks into your system, then I can see the case for charging someone with stealing Wi-Fi access. If, however, the person with the Wi-Fi network does not protect their network, then they are essentially broadcasting their internet access to anyone in close proximity to their home. How can you charge someone with stealing a signal that is being broadcast with no protection in a small, local area? The owner of that Wi-Fi network is in essence giving away their access to the internet. If someone is misusing that access to steal information or access child pornography, then charge them appropriately for those offenses. If the signal is freely available and not being used illegally, then I don't see how someone can be charge with a felony theft. If you own the network, too bad. It's your own damn fault you didn't protect your network.