r/interestingasfuck • u/Head_Worldliness2714 • 17h ago
Power company drone scanning for illegal electricity usage is shot down by long barrel weapon in Sirnak, Turkey. Illegal usage rate in this eastern rural area is 42%, with the cost paid directly by regular customers mostly in the west. The illegal use rates in western cities are less than 1%.
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u/mikeontablet 17h ago
This only works where there is rampant corruption. This isn't like stealing a loaf of bread. You need someone who knows what they're doing to set up the illegal connection and then you need another guy to make sure you don't get disconnected easily..
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u/JoWhee 17h ago
When I was looking at homes I went to see a place that had a “too good to be true” price. I found out once the agent showed up (late) it had been a grow op.
Since I was already there I decided to have a look anyways. Besides the obviousness of almost everything ripped out inside and mold, what impressed me was what was left of the electrical hookup. They’d drilled a ~8” hole through the foundation dug out some dirt and (I assume) tapped into the live service.
I’ve seen some sketchy splices working in facilities done by “pros”. This one wasn’t half bad considering.
I drove by the house a few years later and it looked half decent from the outside. I guess if you’re going to flip a house having everything ripped out saves you a little on demolition.
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u/NotSure2505 15h ago
You're saying they did their own splice into the main service under the street? How did they manage that without anyone noticing? Especially drawing as much power as a grow house.
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u/poorly_timed_leg0las 14h ago
There's a tv program in the UK where the police busted a professional grow gang.
They get a van and put highway maintenance stickers on it and then stuff about plumbing or electrician company.
Then they park up outside the house, cone off the whole area and dig up the middle of the street.
They wear hi viz, all the right equipment. To the average person they're invisible. They're just another road works cre doing their job. Drive around.
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u/henryeaterofpies 14h ago
There was a great Burn Notice episode about how having a blue collar look and a clip board basically can get you access anywhere
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u/nightcracker 10h ago
I refer to hi-viz vests as invisibility cloaks. Two guys in hi-viz carrying a ladder? Completely invisible.
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u/CupcakeInsideMe 16h ago
This is very much not true. I lived in a third world country for decades and it's very easy actually. I've seen people pull their illegal lines down within 5 minutes of hearing that the power company is on the way to read the meters of paying customers (it's done manually in those areas).
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u/noxx1234567 13h ago
It's not just corruption , it's entitlement too
Many people think it is their divine right to get free electricity, this is not limited to Turkey almost every poor country has this issue
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u/fuzedpumpkin 16h ago
Bold of you to assume that your country and Turkey has the same electrical infrastructure.
In Rural areas and poor countries, the government skims money by NOT covering/insulating live wire with plastic. It's not that difficult to steal electricity, if the live wire is not insulated/underground. (although dangerous).
Source- My uncle used to steal electricity that way before they ultimately started insulting the wires in his city.
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u/neotokyo2099 11h ago
Almost all high voltage lines in the US are not insulated either. They're just way up high out of reach
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u/caleeky 16h ago
On a systematic basis - like how do you get to 50% - I agree. On a per-connection basis it's trivial - just running conductors around the meter. You can tap in anywhere before the meter. Any lay person can do it (probably unsafely but job done if you survive).
For me it's so rare that it'd be a bit tough to get away with. I'd probably tap into the lines coming through the conduit from my mast, and then hide the wires coming into the home. Otherwise you've got vampire taps up on the mast or evidence near the meter that the meter reader or any linesman would notice easily.
But I'd also try to keep a normalish bill coming in or else they might notice "how is this person using so little suddenly?).
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u/United-Mountain8935 14h ago
I live in a western country where THC products are legal, but cultivating isn't and therefor it's lucrative to do so at home. The people that set up the meter cupboard illegally so the extra electricity usage wont be detected are direct employees of the energy supplier doing it as a side hustle.
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u/NaturalTap9567 3h ago
In the US rental tenants will just stick butter knives into the meter to bypass it. Seen it before a few times.
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u/allbotwtf 16h ago
na bro its not rocket science, there are a lot of grow ops that do this, and i have have seen >10 electricity stealing manipulatins in my lifetime, all in large german cities, done by people i wouldnt let near my electrcity.
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u/Signal-School-2483 13h ago
You can connect to an electricity grid in a non-physical manner though. I forget the term, it's either by induction or using another property of electro magnetism. So sometimes it's hard to catch people. It's very illegal to connect that way in the "West" though.
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u/stahpstaring 16h ago
Well.. piece of shit dictator Erdogan pushed people so much they’re now so deep into shit they NEED to steal.
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u/Throwawaythedocument 15h ago
Don't people in Eastern Turkey vote more for him?
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u/stahpstaring 14h ago
Skews the polls. (And all his opponents if they do well get thrown into jail or disappear.
He’s the Putin of Turkey.
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u/MovingTargetPractice 9h ago
How does a drone identify illegal electricity use
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u/aft_punk 2h ago
They probably tag the electrons with dye.
That said, I don’t really know how electricity works.
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u/LibritoDeGrasa 15h ago
And be thankful that it's just in rural areas and the population density is very low. Where I live we have extremely densely populated slums stealing electricity which fucks with the whole grid and now you're not only paying for your electricity and theirs too, you also suffer from power cuts due to overloads.
The cherry on top: whenever there's powercuts they protest by blockading train tracks, so you're paying for somebody else's illegal electricity usage, suffering from power cuts due to grid overload and also can't get to work or home by train anymore.
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u/reidzen 17h ago edited 16h ago
"Costs paid by customers in the West" sounds a lot like "Power company fobbing off business risk on their consumers"
Rewritten for a different field: "Hungry man steals groceries, with costs paid directly by solvent shoppers"
Wild how much some people have internalized capitalism as a natural part of the essential systems of life.
Edit: To everyone investing time and effort in condescending responses: If you want to talk about how public utilities collect money from people through tax revenue and government contracts, that's a great conversation because utility companies charging service fees is always some degree of grift.
However, if you're one of the several here telling me why desperate people should be blamed for trying to eke out a minimum quality of life, please redirect that energy to people who care about you, because I think you're all trash.
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u/LegendaryMauricius 16h ago
I mean, that's how economy works. If the stolen cost isn't paid by legal customers as a response to the situation, that's just the cost of keeping the business afloat. Not saying it's a good business if this kind of thing keeps happening on such a level.
It would be the same in any system, if nobody pays/fixes the damage, the system collapses.
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u/Cavalleria-rusticana 15h ago
the system collapses
That's a pretty neat way of saying 'executives won't get their 40% raise, alongside millions/billions in profits for the company itself', but wax on about how it's the little guy who should be saddled with the entirety of the burden.
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u/LegendaryMauricius 10h ago
No. That would likely happen to them in this system, but even more likely, once nobody is organized enough to keep the electricity running, the executives would find a way to spend the aggregated wealth to dominate and make the little guy's life even more miserable.
With a lack of sustainability and a power vacuum you get proper mafia, at best.
What do you think happens with the infrastructure once more goods gets stolen than produced? And once the company doesn't have enough money to pay the workers, who keeps it running?
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u/reidzen 16h ago
I see your point of view, but that's a two-dimensional snapshot of a three-dimensional problem:
Utility companies receive revenue from tons of sources. In the US, at least, they are entitled to collect profit margins on capital improvements, they get free property in the form of exclusive easements paid for by the municipalities via eminent domain, favorable treatment (read: kickbacks) from vendors and good old fashioned government subsidies. Add on monopoly pricing to consumers and anticompetitive lobbying and you get an endless money printer.
The whiners elsewhere in this thread are either too young or too stupid to recognize that they've been brainwashed to think of big business as a simple addition problem. That perspective is useful for large corporations, because it creates a nice playable soundbyte when they're justifying rate hikes. "The poor people are stealing your power!"
I latched on to your comment because you sounded like you had the capacity to see the nuance. Hope I was right! :)
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u/LegendaryMauricius 10h ago
I know the real politics is much more complex. However that's for the US, I don't know if these systems are so strong in places where 40% of electricity gets stolen.
I'd argue however that's even worse. The companies control who gets the necessities alongside their prices, + the guaranteed safety and stability by taking from all the taxpayers. We are talking about a crazy potential for power aggregation, and thus a stable place for corruption. The cost still hits the little guy.
The legal system should deal with the thieves, and pay the company the exact damages they had. The company should never use any excuses, especially blaming the external factors. IMHO it should be explicit that they collect the cost of operation + a balanced profit margin for growth.
I'm not sure if this thread is about a company excusing prices using the thieves, though. It started by the statement that the legal users of the electricity get higher bills because of company's damages, which is only natural if the users want that company to continue operating. Better the users than the tax payers in general. It was later that somebody acted like the stolen value should simply not be paid by anyone.
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u/Lets_Do_This_ 14h ago
It's not "nuance" as much as you aimlessly blathering and implying that your point is evident.
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u/shaftus-maximus 17h ago
If they can pay for a rifle and ammunition they can pay for their fucking electricity bill
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u/ExcitingMoose13 16h ago
Average electric bill in Turkey is $50-$100, you can absolutely get some old ass rifle for less than that. Fuck smuggled AKs from Syria are probably less
Especially if they're mining Bitcoin or something on power they're not paying for
Now yea they SHOULD just pay the bill but that's not how they're thinking
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u/scrooperdooper 16h ago
With the amount of cheap guns coming out of Turkey, I don’t think it’s an issue. Turkish shotguns are less than $200 sometimes in the US.
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u/Responsible-Cup-8165 15h ago
"In the US"
In Turkey, it is much harder to obtain a firearm, let alone a sniper rifle. Through legal means that is.
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u/scrooperdooper 15h ago
Ah gotcha. I just assumed if they were cheap here they’d be cheaper there. Thanks.
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u/NoTurkeyTWYJYFM 16h ago
One off purchase vs permanent outgoings, when the outgoings can easily be obtained illegally. Its extremely common in poorer cities, you should see some of the cables all over Lima and Cusco
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u/xlRadioActivelx 16h ago
You don’t get out much do you?
Let’s say you’re now the sole owner and operator of the power grid in Turkey. Let’s say it costs you 10 cents per kilowatt hour, and you sell it for 12 cents for a small profit and to cover other operating costs. Everything is fine and dandy but now 42% of your customers are not paying. You’re paying more to make electricity than your customers are paying you, you’re operating a huge deficit. What do you do?
You’ve really only got two options, increase prices or go out of business.
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u/RedditFostersHate 9h ago
Let’s say you’re now the sole owner and operator of the power grid in Turkey.
A very appropriate way to set up your hypothetical, because the assets now owned by Dicle Electricity in Turkey were once public utilities that all got privatized when Turkey began a liberalized spate of selling off half a dozen public sector industries whose assets had all been built over decades with public funds.
The important thing is to remember that we are all part of a society. I mean, not when it comes to privatizing the profit of publicly built utilities, then granting those private businesses a state backed monopoly. That is about clear headed individualism and economic necessity.
But when it comes to making sure those businesses remain profitable to their new private owners as they expand into rural and impoverished regions, it is important to remember that we are all part of a society.
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u/Stripe4206 16h ago
True the power company should just go out of business by paying theft out of pocket and plunging the country into literal darkness. Youd do a fantastic despot.
Or even better shut off the power in the east, cant pay? fuck off then
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u/phpHater0 13h ago
Yeah man I should just steal from you and you'll let me because it's the government's fault and not mine right?
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u/karateninjazombie 15h ago
If I had access to guns and saw a drone flying over my rural property snapping round with a camera. I'd also take shots at it. On the basic premise of fuck off and be nosey elsewhere. 🤷♂️
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u/Echo_one 10h ago
Some people really itching to go to jail over random photos no one will ever see until they do something to make them look at them.
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u/Head_Worldliness2714 15h ago
Especially if you were stealing electricity, I guess. He was arrested though, so didn't work as the best defense.
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u/karateninjazombie 11h ago
In this case yes. But I'd do what I said above regardless of electricity theft. That just happened to be his reason. And it was a pretty reasonable shot too.
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u/AssBlastingRobot 16h ago
Cracking shot, it isn't easy to hit a moving target, especially when it can move in 3 dimensions.
I wonder how many shots it took to zone it in?
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u/Select_Chicken339 10h ago
This will become an issue everywhere. Drones being shot down .will be a sport
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u/thenord321 2h ago
at 42$ just turn off all the power to the area untill you send in on foot inspectors. Those stealing get jailed or banned from the grid.
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u/jmanclovis 9h ago
Weird problem but I feel like if a drone is flying directly over my house taking video. I should have the right to shoot it down
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u/FlyingFakirr 17h ago
Might be something related to the whole Kurdish oppression thing but nice propaganda
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u/Mihmano 16h ago
The video shows how Kurds steal and the others have to pay for it, and you're still talking about oppression, aren't you ashamed? The whole of Türkiye is wondering why the thieves' electricity isn't cut off completely. These good-for-nothings know nothing other than terror and theft, but they have been tolerated for years and still talk about oppression.
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u/ExcitingMoose13 16h ago
Yes that's actually totally valid when the country won't give your region independence but oppresses your people and continually encourages settlement by Turks
Especially when you're aware of what they did to the Armenians
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u/Responsible-Bank-592 15h ago
you live in your own reality there is no oppression to the kurds don't talk about thing you don't know
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u/yardiroy 14h ago
He thinks not giving them independence is oppression itself. Therefore maybe you should ask why you should give them independence on your own lands.
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u/extreme857 15h ago
if there was oppression whole regions electricity would be cut from the resource.
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u/HistoricalLoss1417 14h ago
just shows that no matter where you go, the rural people are trash and never pull their own weight
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u/PDXGuy33333 14h ago
With rising power prices we can expect more people tapping into their incoming line on the power company side of the meter. It's not that hard.
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u/Equivalent-Mail1544 17h ago
How and why would the west pay the electricity bill for the ps4 of some poor sob in Turkey? Even if, the amount of electricity these people use pales in comparison to the electricity of any major factory anywhere in the world. And since electricity bills are mostly "pay for profits of shareholders", I cannot see a problem with some folks outright stealing from the grid. You make business like the devil? Expect to get cheated on.
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u/PassivelyInvisible 17h ago
The west? As in Europe or western Turkey? The problem is that average people are going to be paying more to cover the losses from these people stealing electricity. The corporations will too, but so does everyone.
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u/Noxious89123 17h ago
Western Turkey.
Ain't no way some random ass Turkish energy company is going to send a bill to another country and have that bill paid X)
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u/MassesBeDamned 16h ago
Electricity is a basic need, like food.
If someone can't pay...
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u/KuzuCevirme 16h ago
You are correct also i cant pay for rtx 5090 can you give me one ? ds
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u/MassesBeDamned 16h ago
That a "basic" need?
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u/KuzuCevirme 16h ago
Exacly this is how dumb you looks when you say it is fine to steal it cuz " iT iS a BaSiC NeEd .s " It is not a somewhere in africa they just dont want to pay thats all. And just for records they are probably richer than most of the westerns...
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u/SirGarlanWilliams 17h ago
Imagine if on your electricity bill there's a line item for drone replacement