He found a way to lower Duke Energy bills for NC residents. It was illegal, sheriff says
The man wearing Duke Energy clothes looked and sounded convincing when he appeared on doorsteps promising to lower North Carolina homeowners’ energy bills, Rowan County sheriff’s investigators said.
He charged $250 to $400 before tampering with their electrical meters, investigators said. The residents had no idea the work the man performed was illegal, according to the sheriff’s office.
In early July, deputies and Duke Energy investigators began looking into why “numerous customers throughout the state” had lower bills “over an extended period of time,” according to a sheriff’s office news release late Tuesday.
Interviews with homeowners led investigators to arrest a suspect, 53-year-old Iredell County resident Mark Absher.
Residents who took the Harmony man up on his too-good-to-be-true sales pitch told investigators that Absher identified himself as a Duke Energy employee or subcontractor, according to the sheriff’s office.
“It does not appear he was ever employed by Duke Energy in any manner,” according to the release.
A warrant to search Absher’s home on rural East Memorial Highway on Tuesday yielded many items belonging to Duke Energy “directly related to the illegal tampering of the meters,” according to the release.
Deputies charged Absher with 25 counts each of damage to Duke Energy equipment and interfering with electric meters; 17 counts of obtaining property by false pretense; and a count of conspiracy to commit a felony. All of the charges are felonies, sheriff’s officials said.
Absher also faces drug charges out of Iredell County, Rowan sheriff’s officials said. He remained jailed on $400,000 secured bond on Wednesday, Rowan County jail records showed.
Without specifying how many, investigators said they still need to contact “numerous customers throughout Rowan County and the state” about their lower bills. Investigators also aren’t saying where else in the state electrical meters might have been altered.
The sheriff’s office urged Duke Energy customers who contracted with Absher or anyone else for “re-calibration” of their electrical meters to call the utility at 1-800-777-9898 or Rowan sheriff’s detectives at 704-216-8700.
This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 2:29 PM.