Up at our family's cabin. Sheriff has been contacted.
Background: Dirtbag Todd lives across the road from our property. The cabin is down by the lake, but up at the road, there is a pole barn/garage.
We bought the cabin a few years ago. Dirtbag Todd asked if he could fish off our dock during the week when we're not there. It was one of those moderately awkward things where you kinda want to say "No, we don't want you on our property", but he lived their year round, we were only up their most weekends in the summer, so we figured we'd try to be friendly with the natives and said "yeah, ok."
Fast forward to this summer: One day this summer, my brother went up there, and an extension cord was running across the road. Brother asked him "WTF?" and he got a bs apologetic story about a problem, just for a day or two etc to run some critical things, blah blah. Brother says "ok, whatever, couple days, fine." That problem went away. Another time, my brother went up there, and there was a sweatshirt and stuff laying on our dock. He walked it over, didn't seem like anybody was home, and he just left them on the steps. At that point we were discussing amongst ourselves that "ok, this is getting annoying, how do we deal with this now?" About a week later, we went up there, and the neighbor's roommate's boat is tied up to our freaking dock, and there was a bunch of shit laying around. We figure it needs to be addressed NOW. My brother gets voted to talk to the guy, because he's always been the levelheaded, diplomatic one. They talked, and it seemed like everything was resolved. Whew. Quiet rest of the summer.
Today I get a call from my mom, who has gotten a call from the utility company because the electricity bill was going sky high. They apparently drove past, and saw that there was an extension cord running from the shed to the house. Dipshit's electricity has gotten turned off, and has been stealing "up to $25 per day" of our electricity according to the utility company. Mom called the sherff, and here we are.
I will be going up there tonight to turn off the breakers in the garage, and generally secure the premises, and probably put up some big ass no trespassing signs before the ground freezes. . Fucking Thieves. I don't know what the penalty is, but I hope it's serious enough to make the fucker sit at least a few days.
Will update
Minor update:I am about 30 min out. The $25 number was what the utility lady told my mother (utils in their name) so that is 2nd hand.  Cord was reported, util co did a work order to check, workers saw "heavy" cord across road, then util co contacted my parents. When the sheriff got there today, there was no cord.
Road is dead end, we are at end.
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile
Lame Reality Update: I'm back home. I went up there, and was cursing myself by the end of my update for not bringing a flashlight.






Dumbass. It was pretty much dark as hell by the time I got up there. There was no cord, and his house was completely pitch black. I heard his dog barking, and his truck was there, so I am pretty sure he was home. I was not going to walk up to his door and start discussing the situation in the dark (dumb idea to confront a criminal about criminal activity at his residence in the dark), so I just killed the power at the panel in the garage. He had to have seen me, I was using the headlights to see what I was doing. While I was up there, I checked the cabin well to make sure everything was fine and dandy.
A neighbor had some good information. Apparently the guy's power got shut off about 3 weeks ago. He said he noticed it because the house was always dark, but he did notice that he would occasionally hear loud music. I don't know anything about the $25 figure the util co was throwing at my parents. I would imagine he was running space heaters, etc. I imagine that it may have been taken out of context a titch, and maybe the total usage was $25 per day at some point, including our cabin elec baseboard heaters? So all was well, and I came back home. I know Arfcom will be disappointed, so I took the time to come up with a more exciting, fictional, alternate ending.
Arfcom Fictional Alternate Update: I arrived in the area at approximately 19:30. As I rounded the bend with the headlamps on my black 2004 Leus GX470 on high, I could see the faint outline of a 150' yellow 10 guage extension cord with heavy, exterior rated abrasion resistant insulation. I turned my vehicle west into the driveway, directly planting my left tires on top of the extension cord, which I could now see had factory original black receptacles. I did a tactical front roll out of the gray leather heated driver's seat and immediately took a position of concealment behind a 27' Colorado Blue Spruce. I scanned left, then right, and was in the process of scanning back left when I saw movement coming from the neighbor's house. The DIQ (Douchenozzle In Question) was making an attempt to remove the evidence of the crime before low enforcement could arrive! He was pulling on the yellow extension cord, but could not free it from beneath the Michelin tires of my 4,852 lb SUV. He began to approach our driveway, at which point I bladed at 45 degrees and shouted "YOU WILL NOT TOUCH THAT CORD! YOU WILL NOT STEAL MY ELECTRICITY!!!" He paused at the end of the driveway, which was 47 feet from garage to street. I stepped in front of the garage with my back 5 feet from the door. He stood looking at me, obviously trying to choose his next move. I made it easy for him. I removed an old beat-up 4" folding Buck knife from my pocket that I carry as a throw-away, made a visible production of wiping it clean with a handkerchief, then closed the knife carefully and tossed it to him. He instinctively caught it. Now his fingerprints were on the weapon. I placed my right hand down near my holstered Wilson Combat 1911 which was cocked and locked. I informed him that he was 42 feet away from me, and that if he moved to the first expansion joint, he would be 27 feet away, and I would be legally entitled to kill him. He got a very frightened look on his face, dropped $200 on the ground for the electricity he stole. I then stood by as he packed his belongings into his truck and left. He said he was going to his sister's place in Mississippi, where he hoped to find construction work with a union.
Back to Lame Reality Update: According to my mother, the deputy will be talking to the utility company tomorrow. I don't know if there is anything they can do, if the utility worker's statements will be enough or not. So, that's all for now. I'll let you know if anything interesting comes out of tomorrow. FWIW, it sounds like the dude isn't gonna be there long. I mean hell, it's damn near November, northern MN, and the dude has no heat. He'll HAVE to abandon the property, if nothing else. I'd imagine he must be in some state of foreclosure as well to not be paying his heat bill.












UPDATE #3!!!!! - Another neighbor called this morning. The cord is back. I
flipped that breaker, so he's either running it to a different outlet
from way down by the cabin, or he got into the shed and flipped the
breaker back on. Sheriff has been contacted again. Hopefully they can
catch the DIQ redhanded this morning.
Update #4 - Police on the scene, ya know what I mean? I got a phone call from the deputy. The cord is across the road. No one is answering
the door. He said there was a note on the door that said he needed the electricity and would pay us for it, but the dept said that didn't matter. Doesn't matter to me either, because I know damn well that douche only put that up as a weak attempt to cover his ass. He wasn't gonna pay us. He has our phone numbers, he could have called and asked. They're working up a search warrant (surprised me a bit?). I
gave the deputy the garage code, if the garage opens, the outlet is
powered up. He hung up to go check out the garage. Waiting for the next phone call now.



Update #5 - I got another call from the deputy. DIQ finally answered the door at the last minute. He admitted to deputy about plugging in, apparently there is an outlet on a different circuit around back of the shed that he was plugged into this morning. He is trying to say that my brother gave him permission during their conversation about the first incident this summer. Deputy is calling my brother to get a statement from him. The info will be forwarded to the whoever for recommendation of charges.

Good luck. Consider installing some surveillance cameras ––networked, so you can monitor them remotely.

don't forget to take your carry piece

Call in an airstrike?

Put locking covers on the outdoor outlets + the camera idea.

A guy I know jumped his electricity with two butter knives after getting his turned off.

He went to jail.

Your story is somewhat different so YMMV but its still serious.

Pick up a game camera or two. My guess is that shithead will get offended and vandalize the place since you are only there a few times a year. Might as well have him on candid camera.

 

Lock the breaker box if possible also.






Either that, or wire the breaker box cover with 240.  






*NOTE I'm not actually recommending this illegal and dangerous act.*





 

rewire outside sockets with 220..

Cut the extension cord right in the middle, sink the boat

Bear mace the faggot.  He won't try that again.

From each according to his ability to each according to his need, don't you know?  You have the ability to pay and he needs the electricity man, come on now!

$25 a day?  Wow.  What the hell is he doing with it, welding submarines?

Would definately need cameras setup before you do this for the fireworks.

But with 115 outlets.

We think alike ("We should just untie it from the dock and pull the plug."), which is why my brother got elected to talk to the DirtBag.



 

Aaaaannnnnddddd this is a TAG!


- Clint

Must have been growing lots of pot.



 

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter...

-Foxxz

Work through the Sheriff approach.

Turn that circuit off at the panel when you aren't at the house.  In fact, all outside circuits.

yup

Cabins are the worst.

At a minimum lock up your external faucets and power outlets.

I'd suggest a few security cameras, go with fake if you need to.

Dummy Dome Security Camera $10

Sounds like a grow house.

This + pull the circuit breakers from the panel or have some way of eliminating ANY power going through your system.

-or-

Have a few arfcomers over for a little shoot.  Maybe some former Navy squids-I keed-would like to sink their boat just for ol times sake.
Just a thought.



7mm

That's what I was expecting.

eta:And at least now, the man can deal with a-hole neighbor.

Heat lamps for his grow room probably.

Some ARFCOMmers in SCUBA gear swim up and slap some tannerite on the side of the boat




 

Had a neighbor stealing electricity AND cable from us. Fucking thieves.

Oh gawd... Wouldn't surprise me. I have to pick up my daughter from school, get her to gymnastics, make sure my wife can pick her up, and then I am heading up there.
 

That's what I was thinking.  The problem would eventually work itself out.

Yeah, duh

That didn't even cross my innocent lil' mind.  I guess my sins run in other directions

tag for the updates.

TXL

Edit your title when you update so we know to check it!

 

Fire comes to mind.

That's what I thought.

I know (well knew) an asshole up in canada that long ass story short had his power turned off and being the intelligent sort he tried to turn it back on by climbing the pole.  

he got fried to a crisp

I got several of these and they work wonders!

We went thru this a couple years ago on our place. We mostly use it for hunting, but sometimes "little getaways" during the spring and summer.



We gave nieghbor permission to fish and swim in the 5 acre lake. Place was right across street from ours.

1st year= No issues

2nd year= gates left open

3rd year - ruts in pasture

4th year= found homemade deer stands (must of been Bow hunting it, since we use it mostly for gun season)

5th year= we there for 4th of July (we had some diving gear and found beer bottles, cans, and all kinds of crap on lake bottom)

6th year= they were having a weekend party over Memorial Day, Trucks and ATVs all over the place.



That was it. NO MORE!



We told them no more.

We changed locks on gates.

Now we have cut fences, smashed gates every now and then.

It has slowed down last couple of years. but first couple of years after were a pain.





Depending on where you live, Theft of Services may either be a Misdemeanor or Felony.

From what you describe, it is more than Tresspassing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_of_services

Fuck, I wish...



Ok, I'm rolling. Will update later tonight. Maybe even there from my Blackberry.



 

Has the sheriff seen the extension cord yet? I'd get some pictures before you dismantle his freeloading setup.

It is called "Theft of Services" and is considered as serious a crime as any petty theft.

Ouch, thats bullshit.

Good luck dealing with the scumbag.

Tag for updates.
Sounds like it is past time to get hard core with dipshit neighbor.

$25 a day? His extension cord must have been mighty hot.

That sounds like it must have been quite an extension cord to be able to pull enough current to run up a $25/day bill. As I understand it, the most that you can pull through a single 15-amp outlet is around 60 kwh per day.

bingo


zap

This thread is great.

Put all the shit in the boat, untie boat, ???, profit.

buy a taser and offer him some free electricity.