Driver expresses concerns after vandals repeatedly attack charging stations: ‘Just so frustrating’

A concerned Reddit user recently complained on the r/SeattleWA subreddit about an incident that appears to be repeating itself.

“Vandals cut and steal wires from newly installed electric vehicle charging station for the second time in a month,” the poster wrote, linking to an article about the theft in local KIRO 7 News.

According to the article, the new electric vehicle charging station was scheduled to be dedicated by Puget Sound Energy and the Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse, but the opening was delayed because someone cut the wires.

After the cables were replaced a month later, the opening could finally take place – but the chargers only lasted a week before the vandals and/or thieves struck again.

“Any vandalism, any loss is just so frustrating for anybody,” Carmen Palmer of the Sumner Local Police Department told KIRO 7. “It took away an amenity that could have helped our local small businesses.”

It is unclear whether the perpetrator(s) destroyed the charging station out of some kind of aversion to electric cars or (more likely) they were simply after the valuable copper wire in the cables.

In fact, cable stripping at electric vehicle charging stations is occurring across the country, suggesting that perpetrators are more concerned with the cables than the overall concept of electric vehicles.

However, the result is still bad news for electric cars and their users. Although electric cars are much more environmentally friendly than their conventional, gasoline-powered counterparts and produce far less overall planet-heating air pollution, their adoption has been declining recently.

One of the reasons for the slowdown in electric vehicle adoption is consumer fears that they will be stranded without a charging station nearby. Decommissioning existing charging stations will not improve this perception.

“They need to make this a more serious crime,” wrote one of the many angry commenters on the Reddit thread. This commenter and many others like him were referring to the concept of “deterrence,” a controversial and often harmful assumption that harsher punishments deter criminal activity.

Many electric vehicle charging stations have surveillance cameras built in or mounted nearby so vandals and thieves can be caught in the act. This is also true of Tesla’s Supercharger stations. To prevent these crimes, more stations need to have these cameras.

Another Redditor had a helpful suggestion: “No idea why no one is talking about the more obvious solution of retractable (locking) cables. … Sure, it’s a bit tricky because they’re so thick, but it’s totally doable.”

Subscribe to our free newsletter for simple tips on save more, waste lessAnd help yourself and help the planet at the same time.