I was called to this 3 family by the power Co. I don't know where to start here,
so We'll just start from the meter ,
#1 Homeowner had to pry off the cover meter , because it was locked on the cover ,
#2 they must have gone through a couple screwdrivers doing this you can see the burn marks
#3 they used 10/2 RX and passed it down through the nipple into the main panel , (picture #2 )



picked up a few circ's in there then it goes to feed the 6 circ can ( picture #3 )



from that it feeds all kinds of fun stuff ,
like this other can (picture #4 ) .



all the RX in this basement was run , how do we say as the crow flies?
no connectors , some splices had NO boxes , and yes a couple had NO box and NO wirenuts well the power Co. will be pressing charges along with a nice estimated bill , he was handed a "48 hour make safe " order and a "30 day new service " order and we disconnected the subpanels right then and there. there was alot more there , but i think seeing this you get what was going on

- HV

In PA dutch, it would be pronounced "dunner vetter" or "holy smoke". The culprit was probably easy to spot, the one with the smoking curly hairdo.
Seriously, these people should be on their knees being thankful that they are still alive, with a house to live in!
Amazing.
Trainwire

big brass ones, fer sure......

Nice one!

In addition to going through a couple screwdrivers (and pairs of underwear?) , it looks like the "installer" had a bit of a problem where the romex from the meter pan enters the first panel. Looks like a few burnmarks, presumably where the romex got skinned pulling it into the nipple, and grounded out on the nipple edge (no bushing?).

I came across one of these one time, too. there was a hole the size of a quarter blown in the back of the meter pan, and the melted remains of a 1/2" socket spot welded to one of the meter jaws. Musta been a hell of a show! Somehow the culprit managed to get a piece of 10/3 NM connected to the line side of the meter, and ran it, underground, in PVC plumbing pipe (not conduit) to a "storage shed" on the property, where it was connected to a subpanel which fed the remains of what appeared to perhaps have been a marijuana grow room at one time. The remains of a couple old HID lights and gardening supplies were still there, and the windows were coated with black spray paint, presumably to hide the light at night and discourage sightseers.

Just curious how the utility arrives at an estimated bill when they uncover something like this. Do they actually take into account how much equipment the illegal tap fed, or do they just charge a set amount per month since they claim it was installed?

some people just don't know where to stop. like i said in another post they could have been singing "you light up my life". seriously do they look like they were getting close to meeting saint peter at the pearly gates.just shows some people will do anything to get free power.

NJ

I heard everything from turning on everything and taking an amp reading to just imposing the maximum fine , which I think is $10,000.00 for tampering with thier equipment, when i find out I'll let you know.
They had Washer,Dryer (elec), band equipment ( guitars, amps, etc), a fridg everything in the basement and some kit upstairs,
the real bad thing here is it was a 3 family so not only would this bonehead kill himself and his family he would have taken down a couple other families .
which reminds me to check the dates on his smoke detectors too ,,,
right now fixing the violations , will probably cost him about 1,500
then the new service 4 meter's 4 panels will go about 5,500
and if his smokes are outdated another 1,000
oh and did ya like the panel on the right?
looks like he put that in too , no locknuts , no connectors , and it's a 1 1/4 nipple and the KO is knocked at 1 1/2 ,
and FPE to boot ...
and see if you can trace the wires in picture #3 to the breakers,,,
And there is NO OCD all the way from the meter to that sub panel and whatever else is tapped on to before it .

HV

HV;
What's this business in pic. no. 4? Looks kinda like one of those small SqD boxes just big enough to hold one 3ph. breaker, being used as some sort of a "j-box".

So you're saying that there are circuits in the FPE panel being fed from that illegal meter tap which have no OCPD AT ALL (except for the HV cutout at the transformer outside)?

It's amazing this moron didn't burn down half the neighborhood with this kind of "workmanship". If you get the job re-doing this mess, I hope you will post some pics of your work.

Mike (mamills)

Looks like a major grow your own operation to me.

Gary

Mike

Yes!
and
Yes! also everything in pictures 3 & 4 !!! was feed from this
As for fixing any of the work shown , not a chance of me doing it , I'm the Inspector,
not allowed , the conflict thing ya know
there's 4 of us in the city , and we'er union , this would create big problems.
so it's kinda of a unwritten city policy , if ya know what i mean ,,
but i will be inspecting the new wiring and can get pics of it.

HV

This sort of thing is much more difficult to pull off when the meters are outside.

A local electrican here in town got a call after a gentleman had passed away a few years back. He went to the house and they were remodeling and upgrading the systems. The house had 2 and 3 stack wall heaters all through it. Well they went to take them out, the service panel didn't have breakers for them. They had the POCO pull the meter and they were still hot. The old guy had wired the house himself back in the 40s and cut a small hole in the back of the riser near the attic and splitbolted a couple of #4 wires to the service entrance cables and pulled them out the hole and under the sheathing along the ceiling joist to put in the heaters after the inspections. The local POCO did the inspections back then and never realized it. The riser was right against the sheathing with the siding butted up to each side and caulked and painted to hide it all. He paid for everything except the heat and had it free for over 40 years.