Blackberry Strom question

Ok, so I know that to buy a Storm at the Verizon store I am required to purchase the data plan. Which, for $40/month I’m not doing. I know they said this for the palm phones too, but a few years ago I bought a Palm Treo 650 off ebay and activated it online and there was no data plan added. I was wondering if I could do this with the Storm or will they catch it?