The Neighbours' Home Office

While his next-door neighbours were on vacation, a man entered their house, poured gasoline throughout and set it ablaze. Firefighters could not control the fire; the house was destroyed and the family cat died. The arson was one incident in a campaign of harassment against the neighbours that also included eavesdropping, credit card theft and fabricated bomb threats. The arson was charged under a federal law covering property used in interstate commerce. To prove that link, prosecutors relied on the husband, an electrical engineer, keeping a personal computer in a home office and using it about once a week to write work memoranda about his employer's business with Canada. The man argued that this private home was not property used in or affecting interstate commerce.