Driver Jailed After Taking Nickel's Worth of Electricity

Newser ^ | 12/4/13 | John Johnson

[Impala64ssa]

Here's a weird twist in the brave new world of electric cars: A driver ended up in jail on theft charges after plugging into a school's outlet without permission. The kicker: He got maybe 5 cents worth of juice for his trouble, reports 11Alive. The mess began when Kaveh Kamooneh drove to his son's middle school in Chamblee, Ga., to watch his kid play tennis. He spotted an exterior outlet and plugged in his Nissan Leaf, only to get stopped by a police officer after about 20 minutes.

The officer filed a report, and police showed up on Kamooneh's doorstep 11 days later to arrest him. He then spent 15 hours in jail. Kamooneh acknowledges he didn't ask permission to juice up, but he adds that it was a Saturday morning and nobody was around. "A theft is a theft," says an unsympathetic police sergeant. Maybe so, but "if electric cars are to become more commonplace, so too must locations for emergency booster charges," observes Lindsay Abrams at Salon.

[TexasCajun]

Theft Charges will be come more frequent.

[sickoflibs]

Good.

Serves him right for being stupid enough to buy an electric car.

I am sure we or our future grandkids paid for much of the car with the tax credits.

[Izzy Dunne]

I suppose this guy is a ahem, JOULE thief?

Electrons have consequences.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Might be interesting to watch. this guy’s property taxes (ostensibly) pays the school’s electricity bill. The school is on set-aside ^public property^ so external outlets, as well as external water spigots are public property.

I’d have a hard time classifying this as theft. Unauthorized use, maybe, but only if the school had posted the exposed outlets as “For Use of School Personnel Only”.

[Fido969]

My son would use the public library outlets to charge his computer - he'd sit outside the library and plug into their outside outlet and tune into their wifi.

It occurred to me that he was using their electricity, and I got paraniod that one of the local gestapo (small town cops overly-trained in SWAT techniques who have virtually nothing to do every day) would bust him for it.

So I made a donation to the library for $150 (I don't mind making a donation to the library) and I referenced supporting their ongoing operations as well and compensating the library for my son's use of electricity.

I figured it might come in handy if Barney Fife and the bone-headed DA ever decided to try to make a case of it.

[Izzy Dunne]

Time to put locks on my outdoor outlets.

Wire 'em up to 240V and paint them green (so that you don't accidentally use them(. They'll quit when the smoke starts pouring out...

[SampleMan]

"A theft is a theft," says an unsympathetic police sergeant. Maybe so, but "if electric cars are to become more commonplace, so too must locations for emergency booster charges," observes Lindsay Abrams at Salon.

"Maybe so but..."? It takes the Left a nanosecond to justify theft based on their desire to take something. "Emergency booster" availability isn't my problem, I own a real car. Put your prong in the wrong receptacle and you are likely to have it cut off.

[SampleMan]

Public property is not de facto open for the taking.

Can I also cut the schools trees down and burn them as firewood, since its public property? How about pulling up pavers and taking them home to make a patio for my home?

[Jeff Chandler]

Shocking.

[cripplecreek]

He’s probably used to getting it free.

[rockrr]

Asset forfeiture! (except who would want the damned thing?!)

[apillar]

Well...the police do have a point. If he would have pulled up at the school and proceeded to walk into the maintenance shed, pick up a can of lawn mower gas, and pour it is his tank, I don't think anybody would question the fact he “stole” fuel. Further, I doubt his excuse that “it was a weekend and nobody was around to ask permission” would have flown in that instance either.

[RC one]

watts the world coming to?

[UCANSEE2]

Put your prong in the wrong receptacle and you are likely to have it cut off.

My wife told me the same thing.

[Theoria]

Mr. Kamooneh. Take your son out of public school and flee away from a place where you pay taxes for your child and their police force as fast as you can.

Obviously the local brown shirts have no commonsense nor do they appreciate involuntary tax donations.

[SkyDancer]

I thought these electric cars had a gas engine as well.

[longfellow]

I would have told the cop that my taxes pay for the school, go have a donut.

[lepton]

First, electricity comes from the wall.

Secondly, he really wanted it, so he had a right to it. How dare the school stifle his rights!

More seriously: theft of 5c is not normally a jailable offense, regardless.

[Enterprise]

"I suppose this guy is a ahem, JOULE thief?"

I like that!

I'm not sure though that the guy intended to break the law, he's more likely just naive. Given the cost of having an officer investigate and make an arrest I wish something could be in place to offer the offender the alternative of paying a "civil fee" to the store owner in lieu of dragging this through the courts. Maybe a "civil fee" of 250 dollars would make people understand that they don't have right to free electricity.

Years ago I and some students in a basic accounting class held a meeting at a local Border's bookstore. One of the students plugged in a calculator and was promptly told to unplug it by the Border's staff. At least an arrest wasn't made.