This is ridiculous. So how about those people who plug in cell phones?
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, or free electricity. That’s the lesson Kaveh Kamooneh, the owner of a Nissan Leaf electric car, is learning after spending 15 hours in jail for plugging his car into a public school’s outlet without asking.
Kamooneh was picking his son up from tennis practice at Chamblee Middle School in Chamblee, Ga., when he plugged his Nissan Leaf into a 110-volt external outlet and let it charge “for about 20 minutes,” he says. A little more than a week later, cops showed up and arrested Kamooneh, charging him with stealing from the county.
The estimated worth of that stolen electricity? About five cents. But Sergeant Ernesto Ford of the Chamblee Police Department says what Kamooneh was stealing is irrelevant. “A theft is a theft,” he told Atlanta’s Channel 11 News. Kamooneh plans to fight the criminal charges.
As electric cars become more ubiquitous, we will continue to see greater demand for charging stations. But for now, there continues to be a lack of charging infrastructure in the U.S., which could lead to more “thefts” like these. Perhaps other cities should take notes from New York, which plans to create chargers that look like manholes by 2014. And here’s a handy guide to finding charging stations, so you don’t end up in jail.
I’m not sure why he thought it would be ok to plug in at the school without their consent to begin with. Arresting him may have been a little overboard but besides the fact that buying an electric car doesn’t entitle you to free electricity where ever you can find an exterior outlet I’m sure there are liability issues for the school. I doubt the outlet was in the parking lot, meaning he either parked where he shouldn’t have or ran an extension cord.
Let’s look at it another way. The Amherst highway department has a gas pump for the town vehicles. Think it would be ok for me to swing by and put $0.05 of gas in my car? It’s just $0.05. I won’t do it all that often.
I’ve seen people arrested for stealing empty cans from the drop-off boxes for fundraisers. Like the article says, it’s not the amount, it’s the act of stealing. We don’t know the whole story, but it could have been a repeat thing he had been doing for all we know.
I don’t know why parents should be allowed to charge their cars at their kids school. They don’t give away free gas from the bus garage (even $0.05 worth).
I feel like they could have just asked him for a nickel back in this case, or maybe even a dollar for the hassle. Arresting someone over 5 cents and going to court is the dumbest thing ever. I’m not saying it was okay for him to just plug in and then drive away, but I can’t even imagine how much this whole thing is going to cost the county/school/guy that got arrested once it’s all said and done.
How much do you think it will cost? The police were already working, the judge already goes to work, and the jail cell was already there. It doesn’t cost the school anything to have somebody arrested.
At this point I tend to agree with Joe, as this isn’t an apples to apples comparison and JayS makes it out to be, at least not yet.
If I plug my phone into an airport outlet and charge it for an hour, without asking, isn’t that just as bad?
With electric cars becoming more popular, it was only a matter of time before we bumped up against this issue. I’m not 100% sure how I feel about it right now but tossing him in jail was definitely fucking overkill…
Airport outlets are there for the people to use while they wait for their plane. The outdoor outlet at a school is not there for people to charge their car with.
To all the homeowners out there, do you have a sign near all your exterior outlets saying no charging without permission? If someone parked in front of your house and ran an extension cord over to their car without even asking you would you be upset?
Is that what we’re coming to? Unless you specifically label your outlet as “don’t steal from me” it’s a free for all since it’s accessible?
The phone thing is a stupid comparison. It costs an estimated $0.41 a YEAR to charge an iphone 5 assuming you charge it daily. So yeah, no one cares when you plug your phone in at the airport for and hour and snag $0.00001 of electricity.
And even that $0.00001 would be stealing, but they are there for flyers to use, so even if you plugged in a Tesla coil, you’d still legally be using the electricity.
Yeah, I guess I never really thought about it like that. And yes, the cell phone comparison is definitely not a good one. Clearly an electric car will suck up much more than a silly phone.
When I used to work construction in the summer at college, and we needed shore power, we’d always ask the place we were hired by if we could use it.
This guys ignorance cost him 1/2 a day in jail, which I still feel is asanine, but you guys are right, stealing is stealing.
