Electric Car Owner Charged With Stealing Nickel of Electricity from Public School (+video)

One Saturday in November, Kaveh Kamooneh drove his Nissan Leaf to Chamblee Middle School, where his 11-year-old son was playing tennis.

Kamooneh had taken the liberty of charging the electric car with an exterior outlet at the school. Within minutes of plugging in the car, he says a Chamblee police officer appeared.

“He said that he was going to charge me with theft by taking because I was taking power, electricity from the school,” Kamooneh said.

Kamooneh says he had charged his car for 20 minutes, drawing about a nickel’s worth of juice. Don Francis of Clean Cities Atlanta, an electric vehicle advocacy group, says the estimate of 5 cents is accurate.

“I’m not sure how much electricity he stole,” said Chamblee police Sergeant Ernesto Ford, but he added: It doesn’t matter. “He broke the law. He stole something that wasn’t his.”

Read more about this electric car owner HERE.