Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Is plugging in at a public place stealing?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
In Oregon it's "Theft of services", just like throwing your trash in someone's bin.

And does Oregon have public, free trash cans? Why yes it does. And perhaps street sweepers, even! And if you're at someone else's house, do they let you throw some trash in their bin? Why yes they do.

Obviously, if you're going to use a significant amount of electricity, you need to compensate the person who's paying for it. But again, "permissions culture" is toxic and should be resisted. It is not stealing to use electricity *and pay for it*, even if you weren't given permission to do so; it may be something else (trespassing perhaps), but it's not stealing.

There are ancient common-law rules allowing people to walk across your land under specific circumstances unless you put up "no trespassing signs"; if you want to have anything remotely resembling a social contract, you have to allow for something similar, for people to do things which are essentially harmless without asking permission first.