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How magnetic force led PGW to cut off a customer

The Philadelphia Gas Works shut off Ruth Mathieu-Alce's service 14 months ago, after PGW workers discovered a suspicious device on the gas meter at her Lawncrest home.

The Philadelphia Gas Works shut off Ruth Mathieu-Alce's service 14 months ago, after PGW workers discovered a suspicious device on the gas meter at her Lawncrest home.

PGW said the power converter tampered with the meter by emitting a magnetic force that caused it to dramatically underreport fuel usage.

Mathieu-Alce proclaimed her innocence and filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

On Thursday, the PUC upheld an administrative law judge's finding that PGW had failed to prove that the power adapter caused her meter to run slowly. It ordered the utility to restore her service.

"There is insufficient evidence in the record to show that she tampered with her meter," Administrative Law Judge Christopher P. Pell said in his decision, which was upheld.

Mathieu-Alce, who emigrated from Haiti more than three decades ago, said in an interview that her family never intended to steal utility service. "We are Christians," she said. "We would not cheat or lie, things like that."

Utilities battle constantly with customers who fiddle with their meters, an illegal practice that energy companies warn sometimes leads to fires, explosions, and electrocutions.

Using a magnet to retard a meter's relentless march is documented in Internet videos. Tamperers say that strategically placed magnets can slow the spinning metal wheel that measures consumption in old-style analog meters. New digital smart meters are not influenced by magnets, experts say.

Utilities do not take magnets lightly, Texas plumber James Hutcheson learned in 2014.

Hutcheson, who lives in a Dallas suburb, posted a YouTube diatribe after his utility, Oncor, fined him $340 for placing an O-shaped magnet on his digital meter.

"Let me tell you," he says in the YouTube rant, which went viral (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgKQihUEFA0). "If that right there, that stuck anywhere on that meter, changes your electricity bill, I'm selling one of these to everybody on my block!"

Hutcheson, reached this week, said he paid the fine to get his service restored, but maintained that he used the magnet to sort through scrap iron, not to steal power. His YouTube video got 2.5 million views, earning him much more than the cost of the utility fine.

Mathieu-Alce, who lives in the 5100 block of Mebus Street, fought PGW in court, not online. She argued her case last year before the PUC without an attorney.

Her husband, Jean Daniel Alce, testified that he placed the "Precision Regulated DC Power Supply" box on the gas meter to boost his TV signal. He denied that the device contained a magnet and also denied that it would have had any effect on the gas meter's readings.

PGW confiscated the power adapter but did not produce it at the hearing. Its witnesses said they had not tested it for magnetism.

Case closed.

Not quite.

PGW spokesman Barry O'Sullivan said a magnet would interfere with the amount of energy use recorded on the electronic wireless transmitter on top of each meter, which sends data to the billing system. But the gas meter itself still would accurately record consumption.

According to the meter data, the Mathieu-Alce household consumed nearly 5,000 hundred cubic feet more than it was billed for. Some winter bills were near zero, PGW said.

The PUC's ruling says PGW must restore Mathieu-Alce's service and cannot charge her a restoration fee, but said nothing about the arrearage.

PGW says she still owes $6,928.81 for unbilled gas.

"We will send her what we call a makeup bill and will work with her, as far as we're able, so that the arrears can be paid while she continues to enjoy the benefits of natural gas at the property," O'Sullivan said Friday.

amaykuth@phillynews.com

215-854-2947

@maykuth