Fiddling meters.

[BigClive]

What's the most unbelievably obvious meter fiddle you guys have come across?

One of my previous neighbours had heard that if you made a small slit in the case of the meter you could put a bit of photographic film in to touch the dial and slow it down or stop it (UK internal box style meters). He then proceeded to hack a HUGE slot out the side of his meter to accommodate a full size piece of 35mm film! :confused:

Needless to say it was discovered and he was duly penalised. :cool:

[dbrown20]

Clive I posted some on that thread that Smartey Tracey started but I recall another one told me by a guy but I don't know if it will work. He claimed placing a bag of rock salt atop the meter would gum it up and slow it down. Sounded logical. dbrown20

[LostArt]

I recall another one told me by a guy but I don't know if it will work. He claimed placing a bag of rock salt atop the meter would gum it up and slow it down. Sounded logical. dbrown20



Clive I posted some on that thread that Smartey Tracey started


Here is Smarty Pants's other post from my "Ask Me Anything" thread----which he didn't ask a question (he is probably out of them by now anyway)----just...cause..... he wouldn't have to do it! http://www.avowners.com/forum/smileys/fock000.gif


I've seen the small hole drilled in the glass with a nail dangeling from a string dragging on the dial. It works.

Remember the ones with the small potential shunt? Worked with a guy who had some seals. He would remove the meter, loosen the shunt screw, replace the meter and then bump it to one side, causing it not to turn. Just before the meter reader arrived he would bump it the other way and it would turn.

Knew a fellow worker once who sawed the handle off a bypass, then installed the meter and sealed it.

Knew a guy who was fired once. Pretty dumb. He worked for the power co. and when he was building his house the crew he was on came over and installed the ug service. With the knowledge of his fellow workers he tapped the service and ran one circuit into his garage. This free piece ran his garage and I don't know what else. Anyway eventually some of his buddies turned him in. He probably didn't steal a nickel's worth anyway. Pretty dumb.

One of the more sophfisticated ones I heard of was the guy who had a photo cell wired in series with his meter. By daylight his meter would turn when the meter readers came around and at night his meter wouldn't turn. It wouldn't be exactly in series I don't guess but you get the picture. We had this once in a revenue diversion class. I think he was caught when he bragged to his neighbor. Some people just can't keep their mouths shut. In this same class I remember there was a chap in Miami who made a business of diverting people's meters for a fee. He lost a tool once because they had a picture of a pair of Kleins welded to the meter base. Another guy told me a funny one of this in connection with a chickenwire fence about 6 feet away from the meter base. Said they had a badly scorched meter base and the outline of a human figure in the chickenwire. dbrown20

[BigClive]

I can see how the photo sensor would work. When it turned on at night it would shunt the meter so it didn't turn. Not exactly subtle though. Neither is drilling a hole in the glass!

Rocksalt? The meter should be relatively sealed so all I can think there is that if the case was distorted by the weight it might affect the mechanism. I'm not sure I'd want highly conductive salty water in my meter anyway.

There was a rumour that if you used a diode in series with resistive loads then while they only operated at half power they would theoretically not show on some types of meter. Not sure about that.

One of the most common stunts in the UK on the older meters was to use a retarder. This was basically a mains transformer with a very low voltage, high current secondary. You powered up the primary of the transformer and then applied the secondary across the two live terminals of the meter with spikes up the side. The meter would see high current flowing through it in reverse (closed loop with transformer) when the wires were inserted correctly and would spin backwards. People tended to build extra fast ones that left the inside of the meter looking rather discoloured. If they got the wires up the wrong terminals it REALLY left the meter discoloured. (and the wall, and their hands, and their face....)

Another trick was to ease the meter off the wall and leave it hinged down at an angle so that earlier types just stopped due to the way the disk bearings worked.

I wonder what the new super power magnets do to older style meters these days.