The good news is that a group's attempted theft at an EV charging station failed miserably, and they were caught on camera red-handed. The bad news is that was of little solace to the driver of an EV who came back to a barely charged car.
A Tesla-owning Redditor shared the story and video from their vehicle on the r/TorontoDriving subreddit and indicated this wasn't the first time that this had happened.
The video shows the perpetrators unplug the OP's cable before quickly abandoning the job when they realize they're being recorded. The Redditor revealed that when they left for dinner, their car was 5% charged, and when they came back, it was only at 19% due to being unplugged.
They lamented the repeated bad behavior: "AGAIN causing me to come back to an empty car and spend another hour waiting… why?"
There was a little confusion around what exactly went down, which a user explained. They pointed out that even though the offenders didn't successfully steal any of the electricity that the OP had paid for, by unplugging the car, they caused the charging to stop automatically.
"It's kind of like someone tries to break into your house, but doesn't succeed," the user wrote of the "immoral people" in their post. "They still made things worse."
The group's behavior adds to the frustration of many EV drivers who are reliant on public charging. While it's encouraging to see more charging stations going up, increasing disruptions, including cord theft and rogue parking, undermine that positive development.
Home charging with a Level 2 charging station is the gold standard for EV drivers, but not every driver has the real estate or means to install one. Instances like this only discourage EV drivers, increase range anxiety, and potentially stop drivers from weighing the switch to an EV.
While EVs aren't perfect, they are better for the planet overall. They can help lower our collective reliance on dirty energy like gasoline that pollutes and heats the planet with dangerous consequences. EV drivers also benefit from lower maintenance and fuel costs.
The Reddit community was fed up with the repeated instances of bad behavior.
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When you think about owning an EV, what concerns you most about public charging stations?
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Chargers not working 🚫 "As an EV owner this is infuriating to watch," one user wrote.
"This should actually be a crime," another suggested.
"This pisses me off and I drive gasoline," an empathetic poster shared.
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