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Dad frustrated after baffling incident in parking lot at amusement park: 'Why?'

The Reddit community was supportive.

One Reddit user shared a frustrating experience with their Ford F-150 Lightning when someone sabotaged their EV's charging.

Photo Credit: iStock

A Reddit user encountered a frustrating situation with their electric vehicle and had to vent to the community on r/ChargerDrama.

"Brought the kids to an amusement park today that has free Volta chargers. Midway through the day I check my app and it stopped charging at 64%, which I found odd," the original poster wrote.  "Went out to see if I had to reset it or something and someone had pulled the plug out of my vehicle. Why? I mean, I know why, but… why? /rant." 

Sadly, the poster was driving a Ford F-150 Lightning, which does not have the charger lock that is standard for most EVs.

Etiquette around EV charging can be challenging, especially when stations are in high demand. Upgrades to charging infrastructure will help alleviate much of this congestion, though changing the behavior of bad actors who vandalize EV chargers will be a bigger cultural challenge. 

Challenges aside, EVs are a clear update over gas cars, which are more expensive to run and introduce health risks for passengers

By cutting tailpipe emissions, EVs reduce atmospheric pollution, which exacerbates destructive weather trends. These include floods, droughts, and heat waves, which are incurring vast costs to housing, agriculture, and ecology. Even when taking into account the environmental footprint of manufacturing and the energy sources used to charge an EV over its lifetime, they still come out ahead of gas cars. 

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The Reddit community was supportive of the original poster's frustrating charging experience.  Some commenters had great suggestions, even for an EV without a built-in charger lock. 

"Bring a padlock," one community member said. "Many of those free level 2 chargers usually have a hole in the thumb release you can put a lock through to keep folks from unplugging."

"Free Volta? Those have a time limit. Most often 2 hours or 45mins in my experience. Sounds like you were beyond your limit," another said

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