This came to my attention from the utility company. They were notified by the police that they had caught the meter thief, and recovered the meter before the theft was discovered. The utility company ran the numbers and came up with the address and requested I check the status as they didn't have someone they could break loose immediately. As it turned out, the house is a vacant city owned structure and is pending demolition. It appears that the neighborhood started stripping out anything and everything of value before the demolition contractor was given the order to proceed. The service lines were energized to the meter socket and very accessible to children and passers-by. I carry a few of the meter rings and blank covers so was able to secure service until the utility company was able to get a serviceman free to drop the lines. Meter theft is becoming quite popular both as a swap meet sales item and also for some people that either plug themselves in to steal power or use a secondary meter part time in a "revenue sharing" scheme to keep their meter reads lower. ERFERTT
