I think it's not that surprising to read stories about electricity theft from countries like China. Chinese pools contribute the largest amount of hashing power and competition between miners is fierce. In addition in parts of the Chinese culture it is not considered a bad attribute if you "outsmart" other people. So if you don't want to throw away your older hardware, why not try to continue running it "for free", especially if controls on electricity consumption are not the norm and you might get away with it?
In my city, something like that will not go unnoticed... if your electricity usage goes a little bit higher than usual..
I think this is one of the worst kinds of surveillance, because it projects totally unwarranted suspicions on anybody that exceeds the usage norm.
ya.ya.yo!