DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 1997            TAG: 9711140881

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Public Safety 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  106 lines

TRYING TO STEAL UTILITY SERVICES ? YOU MIGHT GET BURNED

When a local preacher tried to bypass his electric meter box illegally, he got a little more than a few free kilowatts.

As the man tried to rig the box so that the current would bypass the meter, he crossed some wires, causing a blinding flash. The mishap also blew up the transformer behind his house, blacking out the entire neighborhood.

The preacher was lucky, said Virginia Power investigator Joe Pirkey. The blindness was temporary and the power eventually was restored.

But the practice of meter-tampering to steal utility services can be hazardous. Blindness, burns - even death - can result.

Never mind the fact that the companies who provide services like power, cable and natural gas might prosecute.

Every month in Hampton Roads, thousands of people try to get something for nothing by rigging meter boxes, descrambling cable signals or stealing services in other ways. Virginia Power estimates that about 110 of its 598,000 customers illegally receive electricity each month. Cox Communications estimates that about 2,000 of its 400,000 customers either have rigged cable hookups or use descrambling devices of some kind.

The company that sees the smallest number of thefts is Virginia Natural Gas, which had about six customers steal natural gas during 1996.

Stealing utilities is a crime that carries penalties ranging from up to 12 months in jail to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine. In cases involving repeat offenders, punishments often are more severe, sometimes involving jail time.

``Even if you connect yourself for a month or two, that's a diversion,'' said Linda Bowles, a revenue protection analyst at Virginia Power.

Diversions and thefts cost companies millions of dollars each year, driving rates up for other customers, Bowles said. The standard for losses in the electric utilities industry, she said, is 2 percent to 4 percent of a company's annual sales. Last year, Virginia Power sold about $4 billion worth of power.

``I equate it to shoplifting in the retail industry,'' said Bowles, who analyzes customer accounts that have irregularities in power usage and charges. She specializes in commercial and industrial accounts, where thefts of large amounts of power can be costly for the power company.

But most of the cases the company deals with are residential thefts discovered by meter readers. And in many cases, Bowles said, the company works with the customer to pay off the bill.

``We don't always call the police if we can get a confession and agreement from the customer,'' Bowles said. ``We want to recover our losses.''

Virginia Power estimates that about 75 percent of the people who divert energy in Hampton Roads live in Norfolk. Experts at the company have never been able to figure out why losses are so high in that city.

``We probably have a greater exposure to risk because you have a transient population,'' Bowles said.

``Some people don't think of it as stealing,'' said Franklin R. Bowers, vice president and general manager of Cox Communications, which provides cable service to every South Hampton Roads city except Suffolk. ``First, they don't think they're going to get caught and second, they don't think it's serious.''

But they're wrong, Bowers said. Theft of cable is taken so seriously by Cox that the company does regular neighborhood sweeps.

Sometimes investigators find that customers are paying for basic services but stealing premium services. Sometimes customers unknowingly move into apartments where previous tenants rigged the cable.

Cox investigator Dave Michalski estimates that only about one-third of the people who steal cable services actually have the intent to steal.

Usually, the company tries to work with them and convert them into paying customers. Prosecution is reserved for large-scale tamperers, descrambling cases or repeat offenders, he said.

Most utilities thieves are revealed through anonymous tips. ``The better cases usually come from disgruntled ex-wives or girlfriends or ex-employees,'' Pirkey said.

In 18 years of sleuthing for Virginia Power, Pirkey has seen some pretty bizarre things, like the case of the blinded preacher.

``We had a man who owned a house and two or three rental houses nearby. He buried cables underground and stole electricity from his tenants,'' Pirkey said. ``Someone called and turned him in.''

Sometimes the thievery is so serious that the company conducts investigations with other agencies like the FBI or the U.S. Postal Service.

Last year, Pirkey was involved in the investigation of a man and woman who schemed to get rich by taking payoffs from businesses to tamper with power meters.

The pair charged $135 to $175 to slow down the meters at 14 businesses and homes. Pirkey said the case was cracked after an investigation that involved an informant and hidden cameras.

The informant helped arrange a sting operation during which he and the couple rigged boxes at several of the businesses, which included restaurants, funeral homes, grocery stores and night clubs.

``(The informant) would elicit information about places they had done because they liked to brag,'' he said.

But when the investigation concluded, the man and woman were convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy because they had caused the power company to send reduced bills through the mail. They each received 27 months in prison and were ordered by a judge to pay more than $35,000 in restitution.

``We try to be friendly the first time around,'' Bowers said of the cable company. But officials said that that generosity doesn't last forever.

``Sooner or later you will get caught,'' Bowers said. ``It's not worth the risk.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Michael Hall, The

Virginian-Pilot

Percent receiving services illegally.

Hazards of stealing services

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: THEFT UTILITIES

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