MOUNT ROYAL – Maritime Electric spokesman, Kim Griffin, said the utility is treating a Christmas Day incident in Mount Royal as vandalism rather than theft.
When a repair crew arrived to a Mount Royal residence early afternoon on Christmas Day in response to a report of a power outage, Griffin said they were surprised to discover that someone had removed the home’s electrical meter.
RCMP have reported the residents were without power for about 12 hours.
Griffin said she does not know when the vandalism occurred, but she said the outage was reported to the utility at 11:30 a.m. and the power was restored by 2:15 p.m.
“We simply got a no power call but then we got on the scene and realized someone had vandalized the equipment and removed the meter,” Griffin said, adding the incident was a dangerous activity and “highly unusual.”
She said the utility doesn’t believe there would be a market or a use for the meter, which she said has a value of $50 but would require the services of a qualified electrician and a Maritime Electric system tech to hook into the utility.
“Certainly, there was a risk for the person or persons who did this,” she said.
“We’re not really sure of the circumstances surrounding the activity, which is, of course, concern to us. The fact that our customer was without power, we’re treating as vandalism.”
Although the missing meter was a surprise, Griffin said the repair crew had a replacement one onboard.
Griffin said the incident begs the question, “Why would someone do this to someone’s home?”
“It caused our customer extreme discomfort, not to mention it was Christmas Day.”
The incident remains under RCMP investigation.
