

Electric car owner charged with stealing 5 cents’ worth of electricity [video] - possibilistic
http://www.11alive.com/rss/article/314666/40/Electric-car-owner-charged-with-stealing-5-cents-worth-of-juice

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wcarey
It'll be interesting to see what the court does with this. I wonder what
statute he's being charged under?

From the Georgia Code:

> A person commits the offense of theft by taking when he unlawfully takes or,
> being in lawful possession thereof, unlawfully appropriates any property of
> another with the intention of depriving him of the property, regardless of
> the manner in which the property is taken or appropriated.

If he's being charged with theft, it will be interesting to see whether energy
is "property of another" in this case. What he took from the school was
electrical potential energy. Is that property? If there's a waterfall on
public property and I temporarily place a water wheel under it, is that also
theft? What about holding a solar cell over top of a solar cell on public
property?

> A person commits the offense of theft of services when by deception and with
> the intent to avoid payment he knowingly obtains services, accommodations,
> entertainment, or the use of personal property which is available only for
> compensation.

This seems to be a poor fit; it's not obvious that electrical charging at a
school is a service "available only for compensation", especially if the
school permits other people to charge things gratis. The _mens rea_ bit also
seems to be a bit of a stretch.

Most of the case law seems to be about people bypassing mechanisms the power
company uses to bill for the provision of electricity, which fits nicely into
the theft of services statute.

Either way, should make for interesting case law.

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freehunter
Theft of property could include money. By using this electricity, he's making
the school pay marginally more in utility bills.

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imgabe
Nobody has pointed out that this guy didn't just randomly go up to the school.
His kid was at soccer practice there. Presumably the school has reasonable
accommodations to be made for the people who are using it. This person
certainly pays taxes that support the school.

If he went up to the water fountain outside the restroom and filled a water
bottle from it, should he be charged with theft for that?

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smileysteve
The slight difference being that, from the video, it seemed like you had to
walk 'off trail' to get to the outlet.

If the outlet was obviously obfuscated or inaccessible, this argument is
lessened.

(My other posts I remark that he also has precedence because several
government entities - parks and rest areas - offer free electric car charging)

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ejs
The reaction is interesting and seems semi-valid but only because it is a car.
If someone charged a phone I doubt anyone would care.

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ensignavenger
I'm not familiar with Georgia law, but wouldn't this be a misdemeanor and
easily handled by a simple citation? (Personally, I think a warning would have
been sufficient). The cost of arresting him and holding him in jail for 15
hours, plus prosecution, etc, would be far more expensive than the 5 cents
worth of electricity. A simple warning would probably have been more than
enough to prevent him from doing it without permission again.

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greenyoda
" _A simple warning would probably have been more than enough to prevent him
from doing it without permission again._ "

It sounds like they were using him to set an example for others. If they just
gave him a warning, hardly anyone would have heard about it. Arrest him and
haul him off to jail, and everyone in the town knows about it (and apparently,
now, everyone in the world).

I'm guessing that keeping him in jail for 15 hours costs the city hardly
anything, since the jail has to be staffed 24 hours a day. Maybe they had to
give him a couple of meals. The prosecution will probably cost nothing, since
the charges will probably be dropped (or plea-bargained down to a small fine).
Any prosecutor who wasted time and resources to prosecute a 5-cent theft would
probably face a lot of well-deserved criticism, especially now that the story
has been distributed this widely.

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balls187
The police shouldn't have wasted all this time and money on what isn't really
a crime.

Say it's not a car, and the driver recharged his phone, because it was dead.
By the same logic, he should be arrested, but it would seem a bit silly to do
so.

What about filling up a water bottle with an outside water faucet?

It's pretty reasonable to not want people to charge their devices using your
external outlets, but I don't think it's a crime.

As plug-in vehicles become more prevalent, buildings will start to figure out
the right way to handle this.

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ugexe
So if I run out of gas it's ok for me to siphon some off another persons car?
Does the amount of gas siphoned matter, or is it the act that primarily
punished?

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balls187
Of course not, just like, if you're hungry, it's not okay to steal food.

And the amount isn't really the issue, theft is theft.

The question, is charging your car like:

1) Running an extension cord to neighbors to power your house (theft)

2) Plugging in your phone into the wall-outlet at the airport (probably not
theft)

It's probably both, so lawfully, why arrest the guy?

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QuantumGood
Would they arrest someone who was charging their phone without permission?
Seems like there could be a lot of arrests worldwide if that was the case.

Also, asking a police office if he made a mistake in arresting someone, or
giving them a ticket, would they do it again, etc. does not usually result in
enlightening journalism.

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tzs
I'd guess someone charging a single phone would not be arrested, but how about
someone charging 100 phones, or 600 phones?

Charging the car for 20 minutes uses about as much electricity as fully
charging from empty 100 iPhones. It uses it at a rate equivalent to trying to
charge something like 500 iPhones simultaneously.

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cyphax
If you're going to add any value to these numbers, don't leave out the
estimated damages. In USD that number apparantly is 0.05.

I understand that they don't want to risk a very high electricity bill, but if
the damages are about a nickel, then keeping the man in jail for 15 hours is
extremely and inexcusably excessive, in my opinion. I understand that they
want to send a signal not to randomly plug your electric vehicle in sockets, I
sympathize with that, too, but not the resulting action taken by the police.
Not over a nickel.

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dllthomas
What are the odds he could've blown a fuse and caused more issues?

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kalleboo
It would still be far cheaper to put a sign or lock on the outlet than invoke
the legal system.

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dllthomas
Cheaper to put a sign or lock on every outlet, than invoke the legal system
once? I'm not sure about that (especially if this doesn't go to trial. It may
still be preferable, but I'm skeptical about cheaper.

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kalleboo
I doubt this is going to the only case. Electric cars are going to become more
and more common, and the hunt for an outlet at a parking lot is going to start
mirroring how it looks at airports with smartphones.

That said, I bet there's more to the case in the OP than we're seeing.
Probably they've told this man to stop before and he keeps doing it.

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dllthomas
They don't arrest you for plugging in your smartphone in an airport. This is
precisely an attempt to prevent it from becoming common. If everyone knows
that is not something you do, then you don't need to put up signs.

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autoreverse
Seems excessive. A verbal warning or, at most, a trespass notice or injunction
would suffice.

I'm also surprised that the police can prosecute this without a complaint from
the school. Is this specific to Georgia or is it the same in other states?

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mikeash
I assume we're supposed to be outraged, but it seems completely reasonable to
me. I'd be pretty annoyed if somebody just plugged their equipment into one of
my exterior outlets and started using my electricity. The "electric car" part
doesn't even matter, really.

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nobody_nowhere
Do you pay taxes? Does the near-zero cost of the electricity vs the thousands
of dollars the town will waste dealing with the matter seem like an odd
tradeoff to you?

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balls187
Cost to the taxpayers isn't a mitigating circumstance when choosing whether to
arrest someone for committing a crime.

I should note, that I don't think this was a crime.

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nitrogen
_Cost to the taxpayers isn 't a mitigating circumstance when choosing whether
to arrest someone for committing a crime._

It should be a factor in deciding what is and is not a crime, however. If the
cure is worse than the disease...

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balls187
I 100% disagree.

If I steal a $60 video game from a store, it's going to cost tax payers and
the company more than $60 to prosecute me.

Should shoplifting > $1,000 no longer be a crime?

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nitrogen
If you steal a $60 video game from a store, and as a result the store goes out
of business or people become afraid of thieves, the county will lose a hefty
chunk of property taxes. Society also loses the opportunity to turn a
miscreant into a contributor.

If you plug your car into a school for half an hour, you ... what, exactly?

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dllthomas
If everyone makes a habit of driving to the school to plug in their cars, I
totally see it being a problem. If it is limited to everyone with a legitimate
reason to be there in the first place, less so, but I could see it still being
an issue.

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ugexe
The same result would happen stealing 5 cents worth of gasoline from somewhere
or someone.

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smileysteve
It seems it would only be similar if a gas pump (or at least a pressure
connection for a handle) were publicly available.

You can also say that it's different because the public does offer electrical
charging for vehicles in some places (state rest areas, state parks)

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loceng
Funny how I subconsciously read that was "Tesla owner ..."

