What to do about someone who unplugged my car

SpaceEVDriver

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Sounds like a lucrative business could open that sells refurbished EVSE's back to the airport after "collecting the abandoned hardware" on airport property. Added bonus the airport keeps the deposits since you lost the EVSE's...
/shrug

That would be easy to avoid by giving each EVSE a serial number and only allowing the person who rented it to return it.

Or permanently attach them to the charging location so people pay a higher fee for the EV lot and it's the clients' choice to use the charging or not.

Still cheaper for the parking authority than L2 EVSEs.
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ZuleMME

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I'm reminded that in any suitably sized population, there will be a**holes.

In response, I follow Wheaton's Law: Don't be a d***.
Even worse that the a**holes won't know they are the a**holes and instead think the other guy in the a**hole.
 

SpaceEVDriver

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I hold out hope that some day we'll have induction charging at parking lots so that each parking spot offers charging that can be activated by tapping on our vehicle's screen and agreeing to the charges.
 

CA RTE 1

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Not much more to the story than the title. A Tesla drove up to my car in a parking garage, parked next to me, and unplugged a L2 charger from my car and plugged it in his.

Thankfully the car is fine. I have his license plate written down... is there any way I could look up this individual's information? Would like to give him a phone call and explain to him to never do that again.
If there are no jurisdictional issues and of course there are provable damages from your view, Trespass to chattel might work. You have the tag number and, perhaps, a camera view of the tag owner as the wrong doer you just might have a case, if it is worth filing net money wise.
 


mkhuffman

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It should not be that of a big deal. A typical charge takes 3-4 hours ?
So this means you can charge 5-6 cars every day per charger.
Much more efficient usage of the availability.
Personally i would love to pay for the extra service.
In Amsterdam you already have the P1 or P2 availability, mostly used for business trips of a few days. It would be a good addition to the extra service there.
How much would you pay for that service?

Personally I don't like leaving my car with people I don't know. That is why I avoid parking garages that have attendants that park your car.

It is really hard letting the car wash kids take it through the wash, but I can see the car at all times so at least there is some accountability. There is very little accountability for those guys who would be moving my car after charging. What if they smoke in my car, or decide to have some fun in the parking lot? No thanks.

And when I get off my flight, I want to go straight to my car, get in and go home. I don't want to try to find my car, try to find the attendant who has my key, and then pay extra for the extra hassle. A slow L1 charge using my own charger is easy. And fast enough when likely I will be gone for at least 24 hours.

If I am going to pay for something, I would rather pay for an Uber to drive me to my terminal, and pick me up when I get back. Meanwhile my car is sitting at home in my garage, fully charged. But I don't want to pay, and I like driving my car, so I won't even do that. :cool:
 
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jonkMACHE

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I did not realize this topic would generate the amount of passion it did 😆. I will probably let the incident go, but the guy does park in the same garage as I do so I'll keep an eye out for him. I will speak to him (nicely) if I see him.

I've seen a lot of different opinions here, and that's all fine and dandy, but fair warning to anyone reading this who thinks it's ok to unplug someone else's car under any circumstances: if I catch you touching my car you will have one of the worst days you've had in a while. And if you, by chance, damage my car by improperly disconnecting it while charging, you will have a bad year. Fill in the details with your imagination.

Yes, it is a D-bag move to leave a fully charged EV/ICE car in a L2/DCFC parking spot for an extended period of time. Regardless, that does not give anyone the right to mess with someone else's property. When I DCFC there is often 30+ amps of current flowing through the charge port... you risk bricking the car(and potentially an arc flash) by yanking that out live. L2 is a much lower risk, but you're still dealing with 240V and several amps of current. I do not trust some random ya-hoo to do that properly. In other words - don't mess with someone else's car.

Also, we are talking about a public charging spot funded by the city... one individual does not have ANY rights to use it over the next person. Just be patient and plug it in somewhere else.
 

Tngo23

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Too bad Ford did not add the Sentry camera recordings like Tesla did.....Perhaps future improvements in Ford's plan.....

Although I use my MME for leisure when I am out, I still want to catch anyone coming close to my Ride with recordings....Check out this Tesla owner who caught his neighbor key his Tesla....LOL

 

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One of things that drives me crazy since I got my MME is how people think they can occupy a charger even when they are not charging. I hope you were still charging, because then it is the Tesla driver who was inconsiderate. If you were done charging, however, you should have moved your car from that space. It is just as bad as an ICE car sitting in a charging space when a EV sits there and is not charging.

I unplugged a Tesla because his car was fully charged and I really needed a charge. In fact, his car sat there all day, ALL DAY, fully charged in that charging space. He does not own that parking space just because he got there first. There are lots of people who need to charge, and he should have never even parked there. He obviously didn't need the charge when it was fully charged at 8:30 in the morning.

Now you got me going... Arrg!

Wednesday I do my commute to DC and to the parking garage that has a lot of rude people parking their fully charged cars in charging spaces. I am already pissed off thinking about it. I need that charge because I cannot make it home. Most of them just sit there because it is "free".
I feel your pain. Sometimes I work out of my company's Reston, VA office and people literally just park in the 5 charging spots because they have an ev and they dont want to walk down the stairs.
 
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jonkMACHE

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One of things that drives me crazy since I got my MME is how people think they can occupy a charger even when they are not charging. I hope you were still charging, because then it is the Tesla driver who was inconsiderate. If you were done charging, however, you should have moved your car from that space. It is just as bad as an ICE car sitting in a charging space when a EV sits there and is not charging.

I unplugged a Tesla because his car was fully charged and I really needed a charge. In fact, his car sat there all day, ALL DAY, fully charged in that charging space. He does not own that parking space just because he got there first. There are lots of people who need to charge, and he should have never even parked there. He obviously didn't need the charge when it was fully charged at 8:30 in the morning.
I agree that it's a jerk move to occupy a L2 spot if your car is fully charged. Some common sense logic has to apply that if the car hits 100% at 3am, you get a few hours grace period in the morning to move it.

But it's 10x more of a jerk move to unplug someone else's car. He doesn't own the parking spot, but he does own the car. There are a 1000 other ways to charge an EV... just drive somewhere else and plug it in.
 

evfinder

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Agree. Don't touch the car. The plug is fair game IMO. If it is in use, then leave it alone. If charging is complete then use it if you need it.
In many places there are rules about occupying a charger while not actively charging. The trouble is that they are almost never enforced. Here in the LA area the only place I have seen anyone ticketed for blocking a charger is in Santa Monica (Prius parked in a charger spot)

The protocol is usually that you move the car as soon as it is charged. If the OP was fully charged then the Tesla was justified in unplugging. The protocol I like to support says that if you unplug someone leave them a note explaining why. If the OP was still charging then the Tesla driver should not have unplugged but if this was a true emergency then the note would explain that. Where chargers are free, like Volta chargers you see at places like Whole Foods, the Tesla driver should have parked and left his charge port open. On returning to his car the OP could then unplug and plug in the Tesla.
 

kkriskal

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Part of the problem is that Ford does not lock the plug into the charging port when the car is locked.

This fact worries me if I'm using my TeslaTap adapter and someone decides they want it more than I do then just unplug me and walk away with a couple hundred bucks of hardware.
On the other hand, imagine if the charger was locked and the other driver tried to yank it out damaging the port. Scary
 

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Never touch someone else’s car. Period. End of story.
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