Stealing Electricity

[bclark]

Can anyone help. I had completed an inspection in September 2007. We had experienced a bad ice storm here in Oklahoma. The ice storm damaged a lot of electrical meters. A licensed electrician came out to the property and made the necessary repairs. He found several other problems with the electrical to the house. The outside electrical panel had rusted terminals and no wiring and 100 amp aluminum wiring. I had mentioned about the safety issue with this box and that it appeared to not be servicing the house. There was another electrical box inside the house with 30, 20, and 15 amp breakers. The problem that I am having is there was power to the house when the inspection was done. Is it possible, that the person remodeling the house, could have tapped before the meter and was stealing electricity to pass the inspection.

[Bob Elliott]

Yes
But with out being there to see it , only you would know.
Are you sure that was the only meter?
Could there have been an overhead drop replaced by a under ground feed with a new meter .
Not being there the only answer is yes it gets done all the time.
Was the lock tab to the meter head cut?

[bclark]

There was not tag on the meter. Yes this was the only single meter I saw.