Power grab: Electricity thieves ripping off $4 billion yearly

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There are two little-known facts about electricity: People steal it. All the time.

There are lots of different ways to pinch it. The more sophisticated thieves tunnel underground for a hookup to the power grid. The risk-takers run household wire over rooftops to a neighbor's line. Many use jumper cables. Some drill a tiny hole in the meter; some steal a meter; and the not-so-swift ones just stick a fork into it, literally. Anything to make a connection. Never mind that it's illegal and dangerous.

Predictions are that in a climate of deregulation and possibly higher prices and regional shortages, electricity theft will increase.

"It's a worldwide problem," said John Kirby, supervisor of Baltimore Gas and Electric's revenue-protection unit, which patrols the city in search of power thieves.

"Little old ladies steal; little kids steal, and so do homeless people, homeowners, businesses and everyone else who believes electricity should be free," he said. "It crosses all boundaries. Some do it out of desperation, some for the thrill. But this isn't like stealing cable. Cable can't kill you."

Theft of electricity adds up to about $4 billion a year in losses for utilities across the United States, more than the losses from bank robberies or shoplifting, according to industry estimates. In less-developed countries, it can be epidemic.

The government in Pakistan deployed 25,000 army troops to read meters, charge offenders and collect payment after theft became widespread two years ago. In Kenya, more than 700 people were arrested in late 1999 when a utility, bleeding millions of shillings from theft, started cracking down.

In the United States, utility investigators started the International Utility Revenue Protection Association in 1990 to begin monitoring energy theft. Representing 400 utilities worldwide, its members often tip off one another to books or Web sites that offer instructions on how to pinch power, and they surf chat rooms in hopes of catching a thief.

There are no statistics on how many people die or get severely burned from electricity theft - after all, such activity is not the first thing injured parties volunteer at hospitals. But a good clue for investigators that someone was probably hurt in a theft attempt are scorch marks around a meter. Fatalities can occur from jolts as low as 24 volts. Home meters typically carry a load of about 240 volts.

But a surprising number of people are quite adept, said Mike, 56, a BGE investigator who works some of the worst and best neighborhoods of Baltimore armed with a cell phone, a two-way radio, handsaws, drills, bolt cutters, seals and extra meters. "What they forget is that they're endangering themselves and their neighbors."

Mike has had a gun pulled on him twice. He's been cursed at, spat upon and yelled at more times than he can recall. He's been propositioned by women who don't want their husbands to know the power was cut off because they spent money on something else. He's even been chased by an old woman who beat him about the head with a broom after he cut off her service.

On a recent day, Mike unearthed all kinds of theft. At one home, he caught a family that had had its service cut off eight times for stealing power, each time using a different method. A business partnership renovating costly apartments used machined copper bars jammed into the meter.

On another street, Mike yanked off 50 feet of wire extending from one man's window across the roof to his neighbor's power line, attached by a red plastic wire nut.

He had been there before and pulled off 100 feet of wire. The jumper cables the man had used earlier to steal power from his neighbor on the other side still draped over the roof. Now, the power lines on both sides were cut off.

Sometimes the job is difficult emotionally.

In the cold and rain, sometimes snow, when children are standing there freezing in the dark, "and they're probably hungry, too - it gets to you," Mike said. "But you also realize that if you left a dangerous situation there and the house burned down, and someone was killed, well, that would make me feel worse."

In some cases, the theft of electricity is so large that it makes the news, like the 91-year-old Utah man who had been stealing power since World War II. He was caught in February when he called to complain about an outage.

In California, drug-enforcement agencies often work with electricity-theft investigators because marijuana growers often steal high volumes of power to run the 1,000-watt bulbs they need to simulate sunlight.