Fair use for educational/research purposes only! http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/01/04/electric.cops/index.html

Los Angeles 'power police' on the trail of electricity thieves

January 4, 2001 Web posted at: 10:25 p.m. EST (0325 GMT)

From Jim Moret CNN Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- They out-steal bank robbers and shoplifters while risking their lives to avoid paying power bills. But the people in Los Angeles who try to steal electricity are being relentlessly pursued by a group of "power police."

"He took a torch to it and melted the cover off," said investigator Laura Kellgreen while displaying several disabled electric meters. "This person smashed the meter and attempted to hide it by taping the glass back."

The Revenue Security Unit of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is charged with uncovering voltage violators -- people who steal power by disabling or bypassing some of the utility's 1.2 million electric meters.

Power theft is not a petty crime. While bank robbers nabbed $29 million and shoplifters picked up $114 million a year, according to the FBI's most recent statistic, power thieves siphoned off as much as $4 billion, according to industry estimates. The loss for the Los Angeles utility alone is "possibly as high as $54 million annually," estimated Wayne Wohler, who leads a group of investigators for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Life-stopping power grabs While honest consumers ultimately pay in the form of higher rates, the cost to the criminal can be much higher, including their lives.

One electrician was trying to steal power when he was electrocuted, set on fire and died.

It doesn't take a lot of electricity to kill a person. "It takes one-millionth of an amp, which is less than a small 25-watt light bulb uses," Wohler said. "It's potentially enough an electric shock to cause your heart to go into defibrillation."

Other cases include motor home owners who try to draw power from street lights.

"In the last year we had two people try to do that," Wohler said. "They were killed as a result of their not knowing what they're doing."

Evidence of power theft are usually tampered meters, wires and cables In other cases, some Los Angeles homeowners risked their lives and property when they stole $6,000 in electricity to keep their illegal marijuana business thriving.

"The serious consequence of that, though, is that's unfused, unprotected wiring, that is now running throughout the customer's property and ... potentially could start a fire at a moment's notice," Wohler said.

In still another case, a person died from coat hanger electrical connections.

"Somebody illegally tried to restore their services after nonpayment by stringing pieces of coat hanger together and running it from the pole to their service," Wohler said.

Warning against thieves Los Angeles investigators have filled an evidence room with tampered meters, wires and cables that allegedly were used in power theft, which can be a felony offense.

"A customer was using this device, an overly large magnet, placing it in front of the meter trying to make the meter stop," Wohler said. The meter did stop for a while, but the thieves were ultimately nabbed. That episode, Wohler said, is a lesson for all would be power grabbers.

"It's just like somebody who robs a bank -- you might get lucky, rob it once, rob it twice, get away with it," he said, but if "you continue to do it, you will be caught."

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/01/04/electric.cops/index.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 05, 2001