Woman accused of using extension cord to tap into neighbor’s electricity

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — An Indiana woman is accused of stealing electricity from a neighbor by using an extension cord to plug into the man’s residence, authorities said.

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According to Vanderburgh County online court records, Tina Marie Milburn, 50, of Evansville, was arrested last week and charged with burglary.

Milburn’s neighbor, Evansville resident Charles Lowe, told WFIE that he noticed that his bill had increased dramatically since November, costing him thousands of dollars.

When he returned from a stay at an area hospital, Lowe discovered the source of the high prices.

“My roommate told me ‘Hey, you need to come back and look at this,’ so I said ‘What do you mean?’ and he said ‘Come back here and look at this,’ so I went back there with him and he showed me,” Lowe told the television station. “They’d run drop cords out from underneath my trailer and run them to their trailer.”

Lowe, a veteran and cancer survivor who is currently fighting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), said the electricity bills, along with hospital fees, had stretched his already thin budget.

“I’ve been going through so much this last year,” Lowe told WFIE. “I fought cancer, I got COPD, and I just got out of the hospital, and I just ... I can’t handle all this stuff that’s going on right now.

“I want to be treated how I treat people. I treat people the way I want to be treated.”

According to the Evansville Police Department, Milburn allegedly told investigators that she was using her neighbor’s electricity to power a light and planned to give Lowe $100 without explaining why.

She also allegedly admitted to crawling under Lowe’s trailer to plug in the extension cord.

While Lowe said he was relieved that his higher bills will stop, he still has to pay his balance. According to WFIE, Lowe said that CenterPoint Energy set up a payment plan to pay off the balance by July.

He is still stuck with a large bill, and Lowe said he did not understand why Milburn did not ask for help.

“There’s two things I don’t like in life; that’s a thief and a liar,” Lowe told WFIE. “You know, if they would have come over and asked me, maybe I might have helped them, but not really because, you know, I can’t afford it.”

Milburn appeared in court on Monday and is scheduled to return for a review hearing on April 24, online court records show.