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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.
“I’m not sure how much electricity he stole,” Sgt. Ernesto Ford of the Chamblee PD said tuesday. “We couldn’t determine the amount. But it was less than a hundred bucks.”
Authorities jailed Kahmooneh on a charge of theft by taking. Kahmooneh says he routinely plugs his car into publicly accessible outlets.
‘I took the electricity without permission,” Kamooneh said. “Normally the value is so little you don’t typically ask permission in these cases”
But Kahmooneh is getting no backing from the victim in this case, the DeKalb County school system. The school system issued a statement saying “the Dekalb County school district has cooperated in the investigation and will continue to do so.”
“To me this was a little heavy handed,” said Greg Crittenden, who sells electric vehicle chargers and is active in the Electric Vehicle Club of the South. He suggests that police and Kamooneh both mishandled the incident.
“I would like to see electric vehicle owners ask for permission,” Crittenden said, though he says he’s never heard of an arrest in such a case until this one.
A spokeswoman for the DeKalb solicitor’s office said a decision hasn’t been made whether to prosecute the case.
Agencies
OMG this shows how STUPID we are in this country.
He gets 5 cents worth of Elect. and the SELETIVE LAW
ENFORCEMENT ARRESTS HIM, YET ALL THE ILLEGAL
ALIENS IN THIS COUNTRY ARE GIVEN THE FREE
LUNCH !!!!!!!!!!!!! PLUS EVERTHING ELSE!!
AND WE PAY FOR IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS SHAMEFUL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MY COMMENT WILL PROBABLY GET CENSIRED BY THOSE WHO
CONTROL WHAT THE PUBLIC HAS TO SAY!
OUR CONSTITUATION HAS BEEN FLUSHED
Schools are charged for electricity at higher rates than residential users. It was a lot more than 5 cents.
Yeah put him on a bike with an alternator an tight him up until he generate the amount of electricity stolen , lets do the same for all the people on jail which are free loading in resort …..
HAha, are you stupid? Schools are charged less per KWH than residents. Commercial business that are of a certain size, also get tax breaks. I was an assistant night manager for Wal-Mart a few years back. Our monthly electric bill was usually around $3000. The first couple thousand Kwh we used were billed at .12. Then the next was billed at .08. The remainder was billed at .04. Same goes for water, and natural gas. The more you used the less you are charged per “unit”.
Yet another Police Department where I can guarantee all 5 police cars show up for a person pulled over for driving 6 mph over the speed limit……Tax dollars at it’s best and things like this do not make the already questionable “police state/above the law cops/thugs with badges” look any better. Meanwhile in the local police department, Officer douche bag beat the hell out of his wife last week after his 19th drunken stupor and under the guise “blue protects blue” the beaten wife is talked out of filing charges because heck, Capt. will hand out a much more severe coarse of action than any court and besides, wife wouldn’t know what to do if Officer douche bag lost his job would she? Also, what’s that going on down Main St. every friday night after shift at the local cop bar? What’s that? Cops in civilian clothing getting plastered and getting into their POV’s? You don’t say? Well, what did the cops do when they found Officer Drunk One on the lawn of city hall puking his rear end off all over the car? You mean they called the tow truck company that impounds every other civilians car when police arrest them for DUI and the tow company brought Officer Drunk One’s car to his home while fellow officer drove Drunk One home to “sleep that one off”????
Rob…you’re the problem with this country…..blaming the police. You sir area dolt.
I thought it was hilarious
What people don’t get is that it’s wrong. What if Everybody did this, not just one man?? The police are correct in this case! Sorry all you police haters!
He doesn’t pay taxes for gas so doesn’t help in maintaining roads,bridges etc. He now shouldn’t be allowed to use public roads.
So how about all of the parents and visitors to the school that plug their mobile phones into a socket? Do they get arrested also? They could have just asked the parent not to plug their car in at the school. The matter would have been resolved without someone being arrested for something so petty. Another over reaction leads to a ridiculous arrest.
I agree with Carmine. There is absolutely no difference in what this man did from plugging in a cell phone in a public place. How many of us have plugged in our phones or laptops at the airport? How about the library. None of the outlets I have used in the past explicitly stated that they were or were not for public use.
How would all of you feel if someone just ran a ext.cord to your house outlet and “used” your electricity? It’s the same thing this person did.
I’d be fine with that actually. A half hour is not much juice. I doubt that circuit was anymore more than a 20amp. I’d be surprised if it was a few bucks worth of electricity. Yes I would prefer they ask but I wouldn’t call the cops on them and have them arrested as thieves. Especially if they were a client of mine. In my place of business when we have a client visit we provide them with whatever they need. We give them drinks and a comfortable place to sit, and by all means electricity if needed. This guy’s taxes more than pay for the tiny amount of electricity. I hope he gets a lawyer and fights it then holds the state responsible for the frivolous law suit. It’s a complete waste of everyone’s time. It could have been solve with a conversation or a sign that say no “stealing” the electricity you bought for us.
Nissan specs say charger rated at 1.4 kWatts. Georgia power charges max around 10 cents per kWatt-hour.
Assume he plugged in for 1 hour at 1.4 kWatts.
So 1.4 kWatt-hoours X $0.10 = $0.15.
15 cents. So officer was correct. It was less than $100.
I got mine from my neighbor , everyone is welcome to plug in their crickets …….He got His plugged in the police station by the way , same for the gas . None of us mind their pension …..on the fun side the gas co and utility co did the connection as His shed used to be part of the Police Dept. Property been 28 years now , we did not steal anything , simply did not turn down the offer would you have ?
Ummm…is he not a Tax Payer? If he is, he is technically using something he helped fund!!
Arresting was to much however he should not plug into any place he is not making the payments. Neither should people with electronic devices!
Honestly,
A Leaf plugged into an external 110v ac outlet, and charging for 20 minutes? A 110vac outlet is limited to about 15 amps, or approximately 1500 Watts so 20 minutes (1/3 hour) worth of electricity is only going to be about 0.5 KW-hr. At even an exorbitant electricity rate of 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, this is only about about 15 cents worth of electricity.
If this constitutes ‘theft’ of the magnitude requiring an arrest, and jail time, I would hate to even think of stealing a pen from this place.
Give me a break!
If they are so damn worried about energy theft, then install lockable covers on their outlets. Problem solved!
Say you walk into a mall on a hot summer day, cool off and walk out. You should be arrested, because you have used electricity and not paid for it.
That is very different – you walk into the mall and are cooled by the malls air-con and then walk out, the mall are providing you with that, it’s their air-con not yours, and the provide that in the hope that you might stop and actually buy something.
This is like going to a forecourt, filling up with petrol and driving off without paying, and then telling the police to charge the state for it because you paid your taxes.
I’m surprised by the amount of people who agree with this person. I pay between £1.30-£1.40 in the UK per litre of petrol so I can drive my car about 50 miles, and people think it’s ok for this guy to not pay at all, just ‘cos he bought an electric car.
I know his car doesn’t appear to be as polluting as mine and that seems ok, but he car actually possibly pollutes more than mine, it’s just you can’t see it. Mine turns petrol straight into energy to move the car, his uses electric from a power station somewhere that has possibly turned a fossil fuel into electric (which in this process there is some loss and a lot of pollution), and then his car turns that electric into motion energy (which also involves some loss), his car has two points of energy loss where as mine only has one, you just don’t see the first point.
Assuming the School / Police are trying to set an example over 15 cents, they will lose a lot more when people read about this and decide to try doing it.
if walk into a mall and get a/c for free and then just leave is the same as if you take your kid to the school that your taxes pay and a light bulb shines inside the room for the whole day…. oh wait, and the A/C in the classroom keeps your kids cool all day during class. I think that unless they put a lock on the outlet, it is in public space. I can for example go to a park, fill a jug of water to take and fill my cars radiator. No one will say anything even though you know the ware fountain is usually used for drinking not for getting you home when your car’s radiator is dead. A jug of water is more than a hour of electricity. I would just not do that every day or prevent a thirsty person from drinking for an hour.
He pays school taxes so he paid for that electricity fair and square. what a stupid waste of time this whole thing is. The school is a joke.
Okay – let’s say the owner of this vehicle pays school taxes and wishes to extract electricity from the school in return for his taxes (as well as educating and feeding his child).
Let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture:
The owner of this electric car doesn’t buy gasoline and, therefore, doesn’t pay taxes to keep roads and bridges in proper repair.
Should he be allowed to drive on public roads when he doesn’t help pay for them?
This guy wants to get his electric cake, baked in your oven, eat it on your plate, with your fork, your cup of milk and resting on your wife’s belly, in your bed while he watches Al Jazeera on your big screen TV! And look how many of you are saying, “Well… ya… that’s okay, eh?”
It’s the owners of these high MPG cars that are causing the national infrastructure to fall into disrepair, because they aren’t paying “their fair share” of gasoline taxes. They pollute just as much (making and charging batteries and all the plastics inside their cars isn’t a byproduct of hopes, dreams, fairy dust and pretty flowers), yet they get away with literal highway robbery!
why they just didn’t write him a bill for 50.00 dollars and been done with it; the school system can drain us dry but they give our kids a substandard education … now that bshould be a crime
And how much did it cost in tax payer dollars to arrest, process, and jail him? Absolutely absurd that this arrest took place. And I don’t know how it works there, but where I live we pay personal property tax on our vehicles so whether they use gasoline or not they support the cost of the road infrastructure.
I don’t know where you live but here in Florida gas taxes go to the roads and property taxes go to the schools. When he stole the electricity he stole from everyone who paid property taxes. Since he thought so little of taking what ddn’t belong to him in the first place how long would it be until he was doing this on a regular basis? And what about everyone else that saw him getting away with it – how long til they said why can’t I do the same?
I hope I don’t do time for taking a drink out of the hose at my neighbors house
Mr. Kamooneh is guilty of avoiding the $6 elec delivery fee , $7 line usage fee , $4 access fee , $4 local tax and on and on it goes . so fine him $21.00 for the fees and 15 cents for the electricity he actually used or …. stop freeking about every little societal misstep . tell Mr. K not to plug-in wherever he sees fit . see how that works
Prosecute this jerk to the fullest extent of the law as a lesson to other electriciy theives! They guy is obviously a jerk based on his selfish comments and smug choice in cars.
The man took property of another without authority and used the same for himself. That is theft, plain and simple. The dollar amount is irrelevant.
If this man has three brain cells working, he will hire a very good lawyer and work to have the case put into a pre-trial diversion program.
The man is a thief. It is amazing that folks do not grasp this.
Exactly!
And I have as much issue with people who just plug up their phones, laptops, or other devices without permission. If a business has provided a charging station, great, fine, by all means use it! If not? Ask, not take. Taking is stealing.
At my kid’s school picnic just 2 days ago a group of older kids decided to raid my personal cooler for water bottles. They chose to ignore my daughter when she told them that cooler wasn’t for them. Had they asked I’d have been glad to hand them one. But the greedy theives decided to take the biggest most frozen water bottle– jgnoring the black “X” on the lid and the slightly crushed state — and got a mouthfull of bleach water since he grabbed my homemade cooler pack…
He used the outlet without permission. At a school. Where children are taught. What was he teaching his child?
That it’s okay to steal? What he did is alot like those drivers who park in a handicapped parking spot without a
legal placard or plate and saying “I’m only going to be here a few minutes.” Wrong is still wrong, even in todays world of ‘me first’. The school was right. The amount of money is irrelevant. Do the right thing in front of your children. ESPECIALLY in front of your children.
20 minutes worth of charge time would have definitely have been worth less than a buck and this guy will have a criminal record for theft? Absolutely moronic behavior on behalf of the school authorities. He could have simply been warned not to do it again and that would have been that.
To those trying to calculate the total cost : I manage a set of small business suites here in NW Montana where we have one meter and 4 clients. I have data loggers measuring the trunk lines to each unit and I divide the fixed fees up proportionately based on the total kilowatt hours consumed by each. If we go with the 1.5 kwh calculated by the reader’s post, that is a fraction of probably the 5000 to 10000 kwhrs actually billed to that meter. Our kwh rate here is $0.0496 per, that equates to about 15 cents that guy “stole”. That commercial rate is less than my residential rate btw. So the fixed fees, prorated are likely way less than a penny. An unlocked electrical outlet in a PUBLIC place is no different than an unlocked faucet, it infers unrestricted use, so be ready to go to jail if you take a drink in that building (most water is metered too), and, you might want to reconsider flushing the toilet next time you are there.
Omy god – where did some people get the idea that taking anything that doesn’t belong to you is ok? My car sits in my driveway – is it ok for someone to take it just because I don’t lock the doors? NO! Theft is theft people.
What if this man had parked his electric car in front of YOUR house, got out with an electric extension cord attached to his car and strung the extension cord to the side of YOUR house and plugged it into YOUR electric outlet?
Why would he try stealing electricity when so many high-end business have free plug-ins for electric car-driving customers. Lissen up there, WalMart and Target.
OK, I get it, he didn’t ask and it was on the school’s tab. But far from being “less than $100” of power, it was less than a nickle. How do I know, because I have a LEAF and often charge it at 110 volts at home. It charges at the rate of roughly 1 kwh each hour. So at 10 cents a kwh that 20 minute charge would have cost the school all of 3 cents, maybe 2.
Now back in the day in England you could get yourself transported to Australia fro stealing a loaf of bread, but the American Revolution was supposed to end tyranny of that kind, or was it
I would think providing charge points for EVs in their lot, like many malls do now, would be a great educational tool to help students understand about global warming, but maybe this guy’s real crime is being an environmentalist in Georgia?
How petty and timewasting! Fifteen to 20 minutes plugged in, especially if it’s a regular service outlet, and even if the charge for of electricity is high, works out to cost of electricity ‘stolen’ of about five cents.
Perhaps the police were a bit over the top in their response but stealing is still a crime so…sorry, you need to take your lumps Kaveh.
Also, he “routinely plugs his car into publicly accessible outlets”? He & others no doubt…I hope this is a wake up call for like minded electric car owners and for those with outlets that are “accessible”.
I don’t know what the draw is for an electric vehicle but should the circuit be overloaded by a “watt pirate” there could easily be damage to the system or an electrical fire.
Think
What about free charging of laptops, Cell phones, and other mobile devices that the school system pays for both for it’s employees and also for it’s students…..THIS WHOLE ISSUE IS UTTERLY STUPID,,,SHAME ON YOU FOR PROSECUTING THIS PETTY INCIDENT SMALL PATHETIC MINDED PEOPLE……