Oooo.. ooo… if he’s running a server farm off a single old style two prong plug, get a list of the equipment he’s using!
Years ago a coworker of mine told us about a swimming pool he just installed. His neighbor thought he would help out and offered his hose to help fill it up along with his own. My coworker, the SOB he was turned off his own supply while the good neighbor filled his pool at his expense.
Never say never, I guess. Okay, in my opinion, it’s unlikely that he’s going to get compensated for the stolen electricity. 
Only by the thief. And you know that won’t happen. Don’t expect the electric company to do it. They sold electricity and they won’t care who pays for it.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the OP will have trouble collecting his civil judgment from a guy who is desperate and stupid enough to steal power from his downstairs neighbor.
Not only is he running a server farm off a two-pronged plug, he’s also growing pot, cooking meth, dubbing pirated movies and CDs for the Asian market, raising money for Al-Qaeda, and powering his lava lamp. That bastard.
It’s August - there should be a late afternoon thunderstorm when he can do it. I doubt the neighbor will notice that only some of the electric appliances flickered.
Does it even matter if it’s worth the money? I would imagine it would end up fucking with your power, due to the way he’s hooked it up. Fire hazard, hello? Call your landlord, call the cops, and call the cable company. It’s not up to you to determine how much he’s stolen.
The longer you wait, the less likely they are to help you, I’d imagine.
So maybe an attorney or cop can jump in here, but how exactly is it going to look if the police do eventually get involved and they say, “So, let me get this right…you were aware that a crime was being committed, but instead of reporting it, you purchased something online, waited several days, removed the illegal cord, plugged in the monitor, then plugged in the cord again.”
Could the act of plugging in the cord again be considered consent?
Are the police psychic? How are they going to know I wasn’t aware of it for a week or two, or however long it’s there, but they’ll know I became aware of it on Tuesday instead of Thursday? Are they going to search get a warrant for my Amazon records to figure out when I bought the meter? Are they going to hit me with some waterboarding to make me confess I knew a whole 2 days?
Besides, I had to clean up my apartment anyway to get some stuff fixed in my place. I didn’t want it to be a mess when the maintenace guys came in. So I figured I’d get that stuff done before I called them anyway since they may end up coming inside to get to my patio.
The people freaking out that I waited a whole 2 days and somehow that makes me worse than the fucking thief or something are ridiculous.
Not worse than. As smart as, maybe.
Okay, explain to me not only how the police or management or whoever is at work here is going to know precisely when I found out about this, and even if they do, how it’s going to spell my doom. Explain to me just how dumb I am and how this is going to result in my likely gangrape by angry landscapers and eventual death.
Not saying you are dumb SenorBeef so there is no need to get all high and mighty about it.
I suggested contacting the cops to cover yourself in case he is using the power for illegal purposes. You know- a spike in usage won’t be reflected in his tariff, it will be in yours.
It’s a simple matter of covering yourself, and, as I mentioned, if they do nothing at least you have a note that you contacted them.
How will you explain you know how much electricity was stolen? (to the police, the apartment manager, the power company, your fellow dopers, etc.)
If this was happening ot me I would wait for the meter just so I wouldn’t have to go the rest of my life not knowing how much energy he was using.
I wouldn’t dream of suggesting how dumb you are, but the idea that you have allowed an ongoing theft of your own property (if you can call the electricity going through your meter ‘property’) to continue unchecked and unreported for what amounts to idle curiosity, is an extraordinarily dumb … strategy? I can hardly say it’s a dumb act because you have failed to act.
I fully support SenorBeef’s strategy here, mostly because I too am really curious about how much power the thief is using. Like, did he go to all that trouble just to run his toaster? Or does he have a whole grow light setup there, or what’s the deal?
Listen, Senor, here’s the beef. This place has been slow as shit lately what with all the boring political threads. It’s been a while since we’ve been thrown the bone of the ongoing saga that is only coming in tiny installments with nothing to sink our teeth into. Your only real mistake was posting too early and now we’re all foaming at the mouth to find out just what this cat is up to and what kind of guy he is that he’s either so stupid or malicious that this would occur in the first place. We NEED the whole story, and waiting for it is…well, it’s just not what we do well. Please do something to keep us from eating each other over speculation.
On reflection, I guess I can’t speak for everyone. I just need something to be entertained by, and you started out doing that, but then didn’t deliver. I’m getting the figurative blue balls here.
I’m with SenorBeef getting the meter too. If he acts now, there’s no proof of how much was stolen. I’m sure he will try to get it back if it is a significant amount and the meter will only help. If it is not significant, then waiting for the meter isn’t going to hurt anything.
Hear, hear. At the bare minimum, **Senor Beef, **we require a photo of the set-up. Immediately.
I’m pretty sure there is a corollary of the “must-post-a-photo-of-your-cat-when-you-start-a-cat-thread” law that makes your obligations in this regard clear.
Once he plugs in the meter, there will still be no proof of how much was stolen either. There will only proof of how much is stolen after that point – that point also being a time when it can be proved that SenorBeef is aware of the situation and and allowing it to continue without objection, and is arguably condoning it by his lack of corrective action.