Dad Arrested for Plugging in Electric Car, Stealing 5 Cents Worth of Energy From School

A Georgia man was arrested and charged with theft after he plugged in his electric car for about 20 minutes without asking, using about 5 cents worth of charge.

A Georgia father plugged his Nissan Leaf into an outdoor outlet at the school and was later charged with theft for what an expert said was about 5 cents worth of electricity. (Photo credit: Stefan Ataman / Shutterstock.com)

Kaveh Kamooneh said he hooked his Nissan Leaf up to an outlet at his son's school on a Saturday in early November while watched the boy playing tennis.

Kamooneh told WXIA-TV he saw someone from a distance inspecting his car in the Chamblee Middle School parking lot. The police report stated an officer responded to a complaint about the car. The owner was not found immediately, but the officer, finding the doors unlocked, was able to learn his address from a piece of mail inside the vehicle.

Approaching his car, Kamooneh said he thought the officer was joking when he said he would be arresting him for theft. Eleven days later, there was a knock on Kamooneh's front door. It was police, and Kamooneh was handcuffed and arrested.

“I quickly realized it was from the events that had happened 11 days back,” he said. “The officer did threaten that he would do that. I guess I didn’t quite believe that he would go through with it.”

Chamblee Police Department Sgt. Ernesto Ford told WXIA that Kamooneh "stole something that wasn’t his.”

“A theft is a theft,” he added.

Kamooneh agreed that "theft is theft" but doesn't think charging for 20 minutes was a "theft of power."

"...I don’t agree that every taking of something without permission is theft," he told WXIA.

Kamooneh gave drinking water out of a spigot as an example.

Watch WXIA-TV's report:

Police told the news station Kamooneh should have gotten permission from Dekalb County schools before plugging in, but Kamooneh countered, saying no one was there to ask at the time.

Kamooneh plans to fight the criminal charges.

(H/T: Reddit)

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