US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

                                  TITLE  18
                            CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
                                  CHAPTER 46
                      LARCENY AND RECEIVING STOLEN GOODS
    18-4621.  STEALING ELECTRIC CURRENT -- TAMPERING WITH METERS. Whoever
shall without permission or authority of any person, firm or corporation
engaged in the generation or distribution of electricity, make connections, or
cause connections to be made, by wire or wires or by any other device, with
the wires, cables or conductors, or any of them, of any such person, firm or
corporation, for the purpose of obtaining or diverting electric current from
such wires, cables or conductors; or whoever shall, without permission or
authority from any person, firm or corporation using any meter or meters
erected or set up for the purpose of registering or recording the amount of
electric current supplied to any customer of such person, firm or corporation
within this state, connect or cause to be connected by wire or any other
device, any such meter or meters, or change or shunt the wiring leading to or
from any such meter or meters, or by any device or appliance or means
whatsoever tamper with any such meter or meters in such manner that such meter
or meters do not measure or record the full amount of electric current
supplied to such customer, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon
conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand
dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not
exceeding six (6) months, or by both such fine and imprisonment: provided,
that nothing herein contained shall be deemed to affect the right of any
person, firm or corporation to recover by action in any court of competent
jurisdiction damages for any injury done by such unlawful acts.