People are climbing electric poles and stealing electricity in Houston
In the Houston area their are people who are stealing electricity by directly connecting power plates and extension cords on power lines.
These people actually climb the poles and hook their cables directly into the power line trying not to get electrified in the process. Are energy rates really getting so high that people are resorting to risking their lives. This is just amazing to me.
Power pirates steal $3k of electricity from woman 02:13 PM CST on Monday, January 22, 2007 By Lee McGuire / 11 News Click to watch video A man trying to keep warm in the Fifth Ward may have accidentally set fire to his own feet. KHOU Someone climbed this utility pole and tied an extension cord directly into the power line. When police arrived to help out, a much larger problem appeared. Police tried to untangle a troubling trend of people pirating power and harming others in the process. Every time CenterPoint Energy sends a technician to a certain northeast Houston neighborhood, someone else loses their electricity — and for good reason. Police said neighbors have been illegally tapping into the power lines of this rundown one bedroom home, and the $3,000 electric bill is now too much for Earline Harris to pay. “Especially when you’re on a fixed income like I am, and I don’t get but one check a month,” she said. Harris had wondered why her lights had been flickering lately. What the yellow power cords snaking around her house were for. The nearby fire that a police dashboard camera caught on Tuesday answered all her questions and gave police a new look into an old crime that’s taken an aggressive turn. “They’re in her backyard tapping into her electrical line, causing her bill to go up, and it’s not fair,” HPD Officer Pat Siddons said. Siddons said electricity theft used to be as simple as someone tapping into a power meter. But in this case, someone also climbed a utility pole and tied an extension cord directly into the power line. “They use some innovative ways to do it that are very, very dangerous, and we’re surprised that we don’t get more calls about people getting electrocuted,” Officer Siddons said. Here the man burned his own feet when he plugged a hotplate into that line. The hotplate exploded and his mattress caught fire. CenterPoint cut off the power and gave Harris a waiver for part of the bill. But five days later, officers are back, and so is the problem. “It’s unbelievable because this exact extension cord on Tuesday was going to the house on the right,” Officer Siddons said. “And now it’s going to another house.” The trail leads officers to a rental property. No one answered the door but we were watched from the window, as CenterPoint cut yet another home out of an illegal grid. The fines for stealing electricity can run into the thousands of dollars. Failure to pay those fines usually means jail time.
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February 4th, 2007 at 2:51 am
.Electricity theft is a social evil. Billions of dollars are stolen from the utilities annually. These costs are routinely passed along to the customer in the form of higher rate. Utilities are struggling hard to find ways to combat it. Most of the countries have realized the importance this evil and formulated strict laws to curb theft of electricity. Most countries of the world have treated this as a criminal and cognizable offence.
But crooks always have the ability to keep one step ahead of the anti theft system. They stay in business purely through their flair to circumvent any challenge that comes their way. They will always be ahead of the vigilance wing or any Anti power theft detection system. Gone are the days of crude mechanical ways to tamper the meter or divert electricity from main line. The R&D of electricity theft is growing faster than that of the metering mechanism, which was revolusioned with the advent of ICs and Programmable logic circuits. Now power theft using the Remote sensing devices has been developed. The money power involved in this game is beyond imagination. Globally hundreds of million-worth energy is pilfered by these anti social elements
I’m a vigilance engineer engaged in detecting power teft for the last 10yreas.I woul like to shaRE MY EXP with any power utility
regards
Sreenivasan
April 22nd, 2007 at 12:49 am
I think this happens worldwide, especially in third world countries. But more and more in the US. I do not condone it, but sometimes people are left with no other choice. In Mexico City, for example, police officers and the power company’s inspectors make so much money in bribes that neither has much incentive to shut down the pirates. One small business owner, Mr. Santos, said he set up his newsstand about 1 1/2 years ago. He needed electricity, so he did what his neighbouring vendors did: He bought off a power company worker, who illegally rigged wires from his stand to the main power line.
“He charged me 600 pesos (about $ 66), and it went right into his pocket,” Santos said. The inspector now comes by every four to six weeks to collect $ 5 to $ 10 from Santos. “I would pay less if I had legal service.” Santos said he tried to get legal service but “they ask for a lot of documents we don’t have.”
The power company wanted his most recent electricity bill, said Santos, who explained that he didn’t have one — he was asking for new service. The clerk wouldn’t budge. “But I needed electricity, so I paid the bribe,” he said. “I understand that this is a service, and that all services should be paid for, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
This is one example among millions. When the system is corrupt, poor people often have no options.
October 1st, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Studio Photography…
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