text: Police in suburban Atlanta charged a man with theft for charging his EV with a nickel worth of electricity from a public outlet.
  By Andrew Moseman Published: Dec 5, 2013
  Media Platforms Design Team
  Kaveh Kamooneh was waiting for his son to finish soccer practice at a suburban Atlanta middle school when he decided to give his car a little bit of a fill-up. So, he plugged his Nissan Leaf into an exterior outlet. Shortly thereafter, a police officer came to the car to tell Kamooneh he was violating the law. The crime he would be charged with: stealing about 5 cents' worth of electricity.
  Calling the police over a nickel seems silly on its face. Indeed, Kamooneh felt the same, dismissing the confrontation until police came to his home a week and a half later, arrested him, and took him to jail for 15 hours. However, given the growth of EVs, a lingering cultural resentment toward them and their drivers, and the fact that it's not possible to make it to a charging station every single time you need to get juice, this issue is going to come up again.
  PopMech even ran into the same problem when test-driving the Leaf two ago: In dire need a charge and without enough range to reach a charging station, our senior editor pulled the EV into a New Jersey gas station and had to ask the unamused attendant whether he could plug in somewhere. He agreed, but had no idea how much to charge. (His memory is hazy, but our driver seems to remember tipping the attendant before scooting down the road to a Nissan dealership staffed by some friendlier faces.)
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  A person could make an educated guess of how much they owe based on the local electricity rates, how much power the charger uses, and how long the car remained plugged in. (That's how Kamooneh figured that the cops picked him up for stealing about a nickel.) But plugging into somebody's outlet for an emergency blast of juice is going to be an inexact science. Our advice: Ask before you plug. And tip generously, for the power and the trouble. The person is doing you a favor, after all.
  Kamooneh intends to fight the charges, saying the police are committing selective prosecution against him—after all, nobody faces criminal charges for plugging in their smartphone or tablet, even those who don't ask permission beforehand. He's right, of course. Police hauled him off to jail over a matter of 5 cents ostensibly to prove a point that "a theft is a theft," though the action reeks of antagonism toward alternative energy cars. Given the scarcity of electric charging stations, there ought to be a reasonable understanding about drivers using a public outlet in a pinch. But if you find yourself in need of an emergency charge, proceed with extra courtesy—just in case there's an EV hater watching from the window.
  Andrew Moseman
  Site Director
  Andrew's from Nebraska. His work has also appeared in Discover, The Awl, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Playboy, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn with two cats and a snake.
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