Directv charges a prorated amount per month to cancel before your two year contract is over its currently 20 per month. Did you cancel before 24 months? Not return equipment. They are not thieves, just wanting the contracted termination fee just like a cellphone company would charge for terminating a 2 year contract early. I love my Directv service and to not know that you are in a contract is not a reason to call them thieves.
I fulfilled my obligations with my 2 year contract to the T. I called to cancel. They connected me to retentions and I had to deal with the most obnoxious threatening idiot I have ever experienced at ANY company in all my years of dealing with customer service.