I’m not usually an MPSIMSer but this was so weird I felt I had to share it.
I live in a 2 story apartment building on the first floor. I went out on my patio today and I noticed that there’s a white cable plugged into my outdoor power outlet that goes up to my upstair’s neighbors patio and dissapears. It’s not temporary and improvised either - he taped it on multiple points along the wall so it would stay in place.
I don’t go out on my patio often so I don’t know how long it has been there, but apparently he just felt free to hop onto my patio, plug his cable in, and tape it up my wall.
What the fuck? Is this the dumbest plot to steal electricity in history? Plug it into a power splitter up at his place and run half his appliances on my bill? I mean it’s quite obvious what’s happening, how could he possibly think to get away with it?
I was going to go ahead and have a talk with him, but then I thought that’s not the optimal solution. Possible solutions: 1. have the apartment management come out and see it, so that if it turns out he’s a weird asshole in general I’m already building a case against him. 2. Figure out how to make the power cable surge and blow up whatever he has connected to it 3. my friend’s suggestion: climb up on his patio, plug an extension cord into his outdoor outlet, and start stealing his power. Then have a fun time when he comes down to object.
As long as management come out soon, as in tomorrow, to look at it so you can unplug it asap. I would worry that whatever power-hungry device he’s got plugged into that and doesn’t want to pay for, is over what the cord is rated for. The fire will be in your wall, not his.
I was thinking of getting one of those plug in power meters just to see how much he’s drawing. It’s possible that maybe his outdoor socket is broken and he’s just powering up some dinky lamp or something on his patio - but even then he’s retarded for not even ask me. But I wonder if he’s running a power splitting to severa ldevices.
Anyway, I could see with the meter if he’s just drawing like 60w or 600w… if he’s using a ton of energy I guess I could sue him for the bill.
Yep, this. Make it look like it just came loose by itself, if you can, like the prongs are still in the outlet, just not connecting.
Or, plug in a small meter when you think he’s away, and see how much he has been stealing. Record the drain for a day or three (w/pics). If it’s significant, then you can decide if it’s worth confronting and how to go about it, and if you can recoup some cost.
A guy I used to work for got busted a few years ago for running a grow house. Sheriff’s deputies found a multi-building hydroponic system and over 1000 plants on his property. They almost let him off on the cultivation charges. He only got 16 months for that. What the D.A. really wanted to nail him for was using a diverter to steal the electricity to run the lamps. Only in California…
I would find it really hard to fight the temptation to yank on that cord in hopes of really fucking up whatever he had it plugged into. But yeah, a power surge is also pretty cool.
I don’t know how I’d actually manage to get some sort of damaging electronic output going. I’d have to use some external device or something, so that route is probably out.
The cord is taped up in multiple places, so I wonder if he’s got something delicate on the other end. Yanking it may be an option.
I’d love to see you run an extension cord from his outlet to your balcony and plug his cord into that so he’s drawing his own power. Maybe attach a note at some point on the cord that says “Fixed that for you”.
I’d call the power company. Maybe they would be interested in prosecuting him. Maybe they could even do something like do a measurement of what he’s stealing from you, so you don’t have to spend money on a meter. Maybe they could even cut you a break on your last power bill, if if turns out there was a sudden spike in your usage that could reasonably be attributed to him.
They might also tell you they don’t care, it’s between you and your neighbor, but it can’t hurt to make the call.
This is awesome. But you really only have one chance to do the ultimate payback. I’d be losing sleep trying to figure out which would be the optimal best/worst thing to do!
I doubt I’d want to escalate it to that level, but if he’s a dick about it, I wonder if I would have some sort of tresspassing case. He would’ve had to have come onto my walled patio in order to plug it in.
There is a kind of beauty to this idea – see what’s plugged in by pulling it down off his balcony and watching it smash into the ground. Maybe you’ll get lucky and it’ll be a big screen TV or a stereo.
Talk to your neighbour. But I wouldn’t accept any explanation short of his mother being on a heart-lung machine - and I’d want to see the machine and a doctor’s note.
Call the cops.
The man is blatantly stealing from you. You are paying extra money for the electricity he is using. If it was something trivial like he was listening a CD player in his back yard and he didn’t have an outlet in reach, he should have asked your permission. Nor is it like a garbage pick-up or a cable connection where you pay a set monthly fee - that would still be wrong but some people might feel it’s a gray area. This is just plain theft.