New Bedford: Two Men Face Larceny For ‘Stealing Electricity’

A surprising story out of New Bedford.  Two men have been summonsed to New Bedford District court after police saw them plugging their phones into an outdoor outlet and "stealing" electricity.

Southcoast Today reported that Homeless man Thoma Baker, 48, and Joseph Benjamin Bowman, 49, of Houston, TX are being charged with larceny under $250. The larceny charge is the "theft of electricity" because they plugged into an outlet outside the post office in downtown New Bedford.

I have never even dreamed that this would be considered a crime.  In fact, I have done this as recently as 2 weeks ago while I was on vacation in California.  We'd find random outlets at Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood to charge up our phones.  We looked around the downtown post office in New Bedford, but couldn't find any posted signs warning people not to use the outlets.

Additional Reporting By Taylor Sullivan