Vernon Street Man Turns Self In on Meter Tampering Charge

WARWICK, RI — A Warwick man wanted on a warrant for tampering with his house electric meter to show normal operation even though the amount of current melted the meter turned himself in at Warwick Police Headquarters July 28.

Warwick Police charged Eric J. Perry, 39, of 176 Vernon St., Warwick, with bypassing meters and interference with meters, according to a police report by Officer James Vible.

The department secured the arrest warrants against Perry after Ken Wood, National Grid’s senior analyst in their revenue assurance office visited the department at 99 Veterans Memorial Drive July 20 at 1:35 p.m. to inform them that Perry had tampered with the meter at his home three times within the last five weeks, according to the report.

Wood said extremely high readings were received from the house, but the meter did not register the proper charges. Wood also explained that Perry had approached National Grid employees attempting to repair and read the meter and acted aggressive and spoke at them with a raised voice.

Wood said he was concerned due to the high spike in electricity shown running to the home, noting it could be a fire hazard. He asked for a police escort to disconnect electricity service from the house.

Vible escorted Wood to the address, where two other officers waited. At the house, Wood and Vible found an electric meter lock and tag that had been cut, a lack of digital display indicating tampering, a melted top surface on the meter. When the top backing of the meter was removed, the plug on the house was blackened and burnt.

A National Grid bucket truck arrived after and disconnected power from the home.

Based on the information gathered during the visit, Vible secured a warrant for Perry’s arrest on the tampering charges.

On July 28, 7:42 a.m., Perry turned himself in at Warwick Police Headquarters. Officer Raymond Cox arrested him on the charges.