POWERGRAMS

Risky Business INVESTIGATIONS UNCOVER CRIME, HELP COMPANY RECOUP LOSSES What does Alabama Power have to do with human trafficking, drug houses and car the rings? Those scenarios are what employees encounter at times when confronting people stealing electricity. "We've even uncovered information that allowed police to solve homicides," said Sam Causey, Corporate Security investigator. "I frequently find utility the is not the most serious crime. I've found marijuana- growing operations, meth labs, human trafficking organizations, stolen vehicle chop shops and numerous criminal activities." It's risky business, but good business, as the company has recouped and prevented the loss of more than $3 million in the past six years. In summer 2011 a pilot program was initiated by Security Manager Sco Stover and Birmingham Customer Service Manager Sco Cotney to partner Birmingham Accounting and Corporate Security in combating "current diversion," which is a polite way to describe tampering with and the of electricity. The scope of the partnership was to have Causey support the Customer Service inspectors and close the loop between finding persons illegally connecting to electrical service, and geing them in the office or, in a last resort, holding them accountable to state laws by prosecuting the most egregious instances of the. The first case Stover assigned to Causey involved what simply looked like two tenants at a duplex illegally geing electricity. "It didn't look like much," Stover said. "But I had a feeling there was a lot more to this than meets the eye. The person who reported the the said the guy who hooked them up 'is a bad dude, and may be hooking folks up everywhere.'" Boy, was he right. "A year and a half later I had uncovered 652 different premises that had been illegally connected by one man," Causey said. "He had been running a shadow company providing illegal electrical, gas, water and cable service to his clientele. "He had quite a sophisticated setup. He obtained shirts with our company logo, as well as shirts and uniforms for every other utility in the Birmingham area metro, as well as police uniforms, and was even placing advertisements on the internet." The charge was $150 per month for a house and $75 for an apartment. He got nailed with a 15- year sentence, placed on probation and was required to pay restitution to 7 Causey works with Birmingham Police officer at meter box. SECURITY

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