PG&E Visitor, says "Your usage is up!" Real or fake?

[Lazyman]

Well, my remote op had a visitor Friday. Here's the details, second hand but its all i got:

Dark blue PG&E pickup truck, no boom/lift or ladder
Drove to security gate, honked, was allowed in (resident figured it was a meter reader) as is practice.
Single white male passenger, ~40 yrs old no hardhat/clipboard (empty handed)
Came walked perimeter of property, saw construction trash and maybe my 4 exhaust vents. Enough to worry. Was there 2-3 minutes.
As he was getting into his truck, he was questioned by someone who was there:

"What did you need?"

Nothing, your usage is up!

"Yeah so, I just got my big woodshop running again and have been working a lot."

(Guy looks skeptical)

Ok Well someone will be back.

Drives away.



I get the phone call, and PGE is called, and we ask politely, "I just moved in two days ago, and someone came by and hassled my elderly uncle about our power usage!"

PGE replies, we don't do that, we never do that, we didn't send anyone out today. We also don't care why or if your usage is up.


Nice eh? I have 1500W of t5's running and a dehuey, nothin else. About the same draw as a baseboard heater!

So my options I believe are as follows:

It's a ripper: Let's just say that's the best scenario, and the worst possible outcome for the poor bastard. It would be a simple ruse, to ask about power having followed someone from a hydro shop, but I never go from hydro shop to grow, ever.

It's DEA: Local LEO doesn't have the time or resources to forge their own PGE truck, and the power was just transferred a few days ago. DEA is gonna be really sad to see 55 legal girls and 10 patient scrips on the wall though! I'm happy to deal with the local Sheriff, I have even contemplated reporting this to them.

It's PGE, and a wire repair guy had an overloaded circuit up the line or something. Doesnt make sense, but only PGE would know if there was any difference in power draw. Unless it was just a guess from a ripper, then we're back to the first scenario.

Baby girls have been at the grow for a week, which makes it very unlikely its cops. They need a week to wipe their asses!

Thoughts, suggestions? Nobody has been back since but it's only been a few days. Trash is picked up and the exhaust vents are better hidden, but since the meter is 4 feet from the exhaust vents there's not a ton I can do.

 

[miltonchitlin]

Iwouldnt worry too much about PG&E, if you are on a smart meter they know the signature of the current using items in your household already. If you have a medical need you can apply for a medical discount from PG&E to lower the cost of your bill.

I doubt rippers would be interested to 1500 watts either.

 

[Kcar]

How can your usage be "up" if you only had the power transferred a few days ago?

Always ask to see ID and write it down!

 

[verticalgrower]

sounds like a ripper to me . dont think they would be interested in such a small grow but that dont mean they dont think you got a shit ton growin up in there. i would bet nothin comes from this but just incase id beef up the security inside and around your home. better safe then sorry in my mind.

 

[Lazyman]

How can your usage be "up" if you only had the power transferred a few days ago?

Always ask to see ID and write it down!

Yep, I would give my left nut for that guys ID right now, but he didn't leave a card or anything.

Agreed on the usage, it just doesn't make sense. But then again, I posted this because there reallly doesn't seem to be a rational explanation for any of it!

We have Smartmeters but they don't turn them on til May this year.

 

[ourcee]

lol. rippers dont know if its 50 watts or 5000 watts, all they know is theres cash money (pretty much) waiting inside if it IS a grow.

rippers wouldn't come by in the middle of the day and go through the effort of faking a PG&E truck, they'd just come by very late at night and probably check out your vents/smell around the place, try to peek in some windows.

the only people that would have the time/resources($)/and willing to put up that much effort would be undercover LEO or DEA.

who the fuck from pg&e would care if your usage went up? thats nothing as far as wattage goes, thats someone running a single room portable heater. ONE little heater. thats nothing suspicious

The fact that this guy came up specifically to YOU, specifically walking around your property, nobody elses as well, then just left, with a semi unofficial looking vehicle, not the normal type, plus no identifying information (they usually sport big lanyard badges)? that sounds sketchy to me.

if you just started this OP up a week ago, theres no way there would be enough intel yet to even start an investigation, unless you've got very nosy neighbors that immediately reported a suspected grow or something.

any prior activities that might have led any leo to be interested in you whereabouts and what you're up to?

this seems odd.

 

[Lazyman]

lol. rippers dont know if its 50 watts or 5000 watts, all they know is theres cash money (pretty much) waiting inside if it IS a grow.

rippers wouldn't come by in the middle of the day and go through the effort of faking a PG&E truck, they'd just come by very late at night and probably check out your vents/smell around the place, try to peek in some windows.

the only people that would have the time/resources($)/and willing to put up that much effort would be undercover LEO or DEA.

who the fuck from pg&e would care if your usage went up? thats nothing as far as wattage goes, thats someone running a single room portable heater. ONE little heater. thats nothing suspicious

The fact that this guy came up specifically to YOU, specifically walking around your property, nobody elses as well, then just left, with a semi unofficial looking vehicle, not the normal type, plus no identifying information (they usually sport big lanyard badges)? that sounds sketchy to me.

if you just started this OP up a week ago, theres no way there would be enough intel yet to even start an investigation, unless you've got very nosy neighbors that immediately reported a suspected grow or something.

any prior activities that might have led any leo to be interested in you whereabouts and what you're up to?

this seems odd.

Yep agreed on the LEO thing, it would be the county sheriff where the op is at, but DEA has the resources to pull it off. However, like you said, this is sooo new, there's no way it could be cops already. Just no way.

So that's back to PGE or rippers, and it doesn't fit either of their profiles either! Man I wish I had been there, that guy woulda got run off awful fast.

 

[praisehim.]

lazy, im sorry to hear about your situation. but considering you've probably been growing a while, you think maybe someone mentioned to your local five-0 that you grow ? and a nosy cop decided he can stop by your house an have a look around ?
from what i understand its not illegal to walk up to someones house an look around, just as long as you dont trespass. cops do it all the time with no warrant.

i dont think rippers would walk around your house in the day time.. and pgne from what i know is very upfront about their business these days.

i think its a rookie cop, on his off time tryin to make a case outta somethin. Theirs dicks like that everywhere.
best of luck man, my prayers are with you.

 

[Lazyman]

Thanks Praisehim, I think if it were a cop he'd have just come in uniform. I have several friends close by, and the same county Sheriff stops by about once a year and the convo goes like this:

Hi, we got a marijuana smell complaint, do you have a grow here?
Yes
Is it legal?
Yes
Can I come see?
Yes
Cop comes in, looks around, sees docs recs on wall, "you have a few more than you're allowed eh? No big deal, this is Norcal after all."
Cop leaves.

Apparently my buddy has had the same visit/convo 4-5 times, always the same.

Like I said, I'd be happy to talk to the Sheriff and show him around, I have ten patients I grow for in my collective, and even for my county I'm WAY under my allowed space and plant counts (if there were such things anymore.)

 

[RNDZL]

im thinking oucree has some valid point

hope you figure it out to your benefit

 

[nnep]

That's very strange, my money is it was actually someone from the power company, not sure why though.

I can tell you first hand that the communication in most major corporations is shit, so the person you talked to could very well have just been clueless.

 

[Lazyman]

Thanks RNDZL, so it sounds like a possible ripper to you too?

 

[Lazyman]

That's very strange, my money is it was actually someone from the power company, not sure why though.

I can tell you first hand that the communication in most major corporations is shit, so the person you talked to could very well have just been clueless.

Yeah thats the most logical conclusion, but not by much eh? I knew PGE doesn't care about usage, let alone send someone out to drive to the house and check for usage, but like I said in the OP, maybe he was working on a transformer up the road and the transformer is being pushed just enough extra to cause problems?

I know at my old spot I tripped the breaker on the old transformer the first night I lit up 7K, and they spend all nite changing it out. They just told me the xformer was faulty and would be exchanged, no probs since and no comments from PGE.

God this is weird.

 

[meduser180056]

I think it probably was PGE lazyman... Weird how he said your usage was up and that someone would be back.

I recently had PGE on the phone and the lady was looking at my usage anyhow there was a long pause then she said "first off what R u doing you are using blah blah kilowatts a month thats crazy" at this point I want to just hang the phone up on her, but I figure that would be a lil suspicious haha. She says "do you have a hottub or something? This is crazy" She is sounding really bewildered at this point I don't think she had ever seen usage like that on a house. I quickly try to recover and say well we do have a hot tub, but the main reason is because there is a workshop for woodworking and auto repair stuff on the same meter. She asks me if the person who runs the shop contributes to the bill I say yes. Then she asks when he started the shop I say ..... She looks again and says yeah that looks about right. She even had me check my meter to make sure it was reading right. Very stressful! Anyhow after all that we got back to the business I was originally discussing with her and she doesn't mention it again. Too close for comfort I hope PGE is keeping our info confidential and minding their own business.

 

[urban gorilla]

edit: never mind. my idea has already been posted.

 

[meduser180056]

I missed how u said it's only 1500w. That's nothing bro I seriously doubt PGE would even blink at that my usage convo came from me running 9k. Maybe it is a ripper very suspicious...

 

[Lazyman]

Yeah, by process of elimination it's gotta be a PGE retard, or a ripper getting in WAY over his head. I'd really rather it was the latter, as I'd be handed a tied-up ripper to do with as I please.

 

[Classyathome]

IMHO

Real employee - fake visit...

They know you have legit grow - one of their employees knows your details, is planning a rip, and checking out your new digs for security / dogs / persons on site.

First thing that came to mind...

 

[meduser180056]

I don't see it classy I mean 1500w isn't anything abnormal not enough for pge to suspect anything.

If it was pge it was probably totally unrelated to the grow. Maybe a ripper who noticed construction looking like a grow? I doubt it though. Probably nothing... I mean how many rippers go to the trouble of faking a pge truck haha.

Was the location basically empty before you started running power so no power usage to 1500w I don't know just throwing ideas out there. I think your ok though Lazyman.

 

[ourcee]

I don't see it classy I mean 1500w isn't anything abnormal not enough for pge to suspect anything.

while I do agree with classy that COULD be one of the scenarios, 1500w increase (only after 1 week of moving in, who's to say whats normal right?) doesn't really get attention from an employee thats hip to grow wattage.

plus it's only been a week!, the bill hasn't even been generated yet since the increase in wattage. how would an employee know unless there was a smart meter they could read real time in a remote location? (didnt you say yours isnt even on yet?) or make multiple manual meter reading trips?

now if you were pulling like 10kw I could see an employee doin that.... just doesnt fit the bill with 1500w though.. just doesn't fit anything related to REAL and legal PG&E.