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EV Owner Arrested Over 5 Cents Worth of Electricity From School's Outlet

Posted by Soulskill on from the charged-for-charging dept.

sl4shd0rk writes "It seems you can be arrested in Georgia for drawing 5 cents of electricity from a school's outdoor receptacle. Kaveh Kamooneh was charged with theft for plugging his Nissan Leaf into a Chamblee Middle School 110V outlet; the same outlet one could use to charge a laptop or cellphone. The Leaf draws 1KW/hour while charging which works out to under $0.10 of electricity per hour. Mr Kamooneh charged his Leaf for less than 30 minutes, which works out to about a nickel. Sgt. Ernesto Ford, the arresting officer, pointed out, 'theft is a theft,' which was his argument for arresting Mr. Kamooneh. Considering the cost of the infraction, it does not seem a reasonable decision when considering how much this will cost the state in legal funds. Does this mean anyone charging a laptop or cell phone will be charged with theft as well?"

13 of 1,010 comments (clear)

  1. Cop was "in his car"? by Pope · · Score: 5, Interesting

    from Ars:

    "A short time later, he noticed someone in his car and went to investigate—and found that the man was a Chamblee police officer. "

    So, cops just randomly enter other people's cars? I know I used to always lock mine if I wasn't in it.

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    1. Re:Cop was "in his car"? by Minwee · · Score: 3, Interesting

      not illegal to enter a vehicle being used in the commission of a crime in progress

      yes this stealing of elecricity was wrong and illegal, electric vehicle owners have no right to plug in whereever they find an outlet.

      Gasoline powered cars produce exhaust which contains noticeable amounts of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide. Clearly the driver of any vehicle putting such dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere (Where children might inhale them. Won't somebody please think of them?) is committing attempted murder which is wrong and illegal, so that makes just about any car in the country fair game.

    2. Re:Cop was "in his car"? by Deep+Esophagus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'll grant that a nickel's worth isn't enough to hang him over... but what we're up against here is the tragedy of the commons. One person doing it has little to no impact on the scheme of things, but once people decide it's OK for him to do it, why not me too? And my neighbor. And the 600 other people in the immediate vicinity. You can't let him get away with it and then run us off, that's discrimination!

      This isn't about stopping that one guy from helping himself to a nickel's worth of electricity. It's about setting a precedent before it gets out of hand. I'm normally as anti-authority, anti-government as they come* but I can see the need to stop this early.

      *And with that comment out in the open, I'd like to wish cheery holiday greetings to my fans at the NSA

  2. Theft of services by nharmon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does this mean anyone charging a laptop or cell phone will be charged with theft as well?

    Yes, they certainly will.

  3. Re:Theft? by Jaywalk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So what was the outlet there for? If it's on a public building but not meant for public use, it should have been secured, either by locking it or having it shut off inside the building. Actually, the drinking fountain comment is a good point. Obviously, a drinking fountain is there for public use. But what if it's just a faucet? Is getting a drink from a drinking fountain okay, but not a faucet? Is charging a phone okay, but not a car? Where is the line here?

    Other than the obviously boneheaded ignorance highlighted by the amounts involved, there needs to be more clarity on which public facilities are available to the public and which are reserved for the institution.

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  4. Re:Not money, precedent. by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I agree with the arrest, you don't get to plug in your car or arc welder into someone else's outlet

  5. So does this apply to all energy "theft"? by EvilSS · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What about if someone trespasses in my business or residence while the heat is on? Can I get them charged with theft for taking the thermal energy from the air that I paid to put there (along with trespassing charges/etc)? Or adding their body heat and thus incrementally increasing my cooling costs in the summer? What if they use a solar charger in my (let's say windowless for the sake of argument) building while the lights are on? Can I have them charged for stealing my photons?

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  6. Re:Theft by chuckugly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you wouldn't have done it at a random stranger's house, why would you do it at your children's school without asking?

    The same reason I'd take a piss in the school restroom without asking, but not in yours.

  7. Re:Theft by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I see this as more akin to your next door neighbor running an extension line over to your home to borrow a little electricity â" and failing to tell you.

    Reminds me of a buddy of mine who owned a business, and had contractors working on another building, decide to "use" his power without telling him. Well his solution was to send the company a bill labeled "asshole fee: $250" amazingly it was paid without a second though. I've heard of it happening in other places as well.

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  8. Re:Math is math by psmears · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1KW/hr is a meaningless unit.

    I agree that it's completely wrong here, but it's not necessarily meaningless: you could legitimately say "The energy consumption was increasing at a rate of 1kW/hr"...

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  9. Re:Theft is theft, but... by jxander · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Theft may be theft ... but is this theft?? And I don't even care about the ridiculously low monetary value

    IANAL, and I certainly haven't read through the EULA and TOS associated with the wall plug in question ... but it sounds like something provided by the school for students and teachers to use on their personal electronics. Which is exactly what he was doing.

    Seems more like stuffing your pockets full of "free samples." A bit tacky, maybe a wrist-slappable offense, but certainly not theft.

    You (i.e. the school and/or cops) don't get to retroactively go back and say "We meant any personal electronics EXCEPT cars! Yeah, so you're in violation, arrest him"

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  10. Re:More than theft by lagomorpha2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Which raises the question: why did Nissan design it to only pull 1KW from a slow enough 110V outlet when it was perfectly capable of delivering 1.5KW?

  11. Re:More than theft by tftp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wouldn't be that upset if they sent him that bill instead of the crazy arrest.

    The Leaf owner in question is a habitual troublemaker who violated orders of the property owner already (per the link to 11alive.) He also argued with the cop and refused to admit a mistake. (If he did that, the cop would let him go.)

    Such a person would throw that bill away and come to that school to recharge as matter of teaching them a lesson. An arrest record is just deserts for this behavior, if the report is accurate. The society does not need antisocial egotists.

    It's not like they would have hundreds of people charging though, there aren't that many outside outlets within reach of a parking space.

    Expect all outdoor outlets to be locked as soon as enough EVs start charging without permission. The liability is far greater than the cost of stolen energy.