Kaveh Kamooneh was arrested in Georgia and kept for 15 hours after he “stole” 5 cents worth of electricity from the Chamblee Middle School.

Kamooneh had parked his Nissan Leaf and was charging it at a nearby outlet while watching his son play tennis when a police officer, who was clearly on a very important mission to stop people from taking even the barest amount of electricity without paying for it, told him to stop and then filed a report. He also sought an arrest warrant, because of course as a police officer a man stealing a tiny bit of electricity is at the top of the list when it comes to crimes, and 11 days later Kamooneh was arrested.

“People charge laptops or cell phones at public outlets all the time, and no one’s ever been arrested for that,” Kamooneh said in an interview with Atlanta’s Channel 11 News.

The police officer, Sergeant Ernesto Ford, stands by his decision and essentially uses the old stealing is stealing mentality for doing so. “I’m not sure how much electricity he stole,” Ford said. “He broke the law. He stole something that wasn’t his.”

As it turns out, Kamooneh stole a whopping 5 cents worth of electricity.

As ridiculous as this story is, electric cars are becoming more popular, and it raises the issue of charging your car without the approval of the owner of that electricity you use. We are guessing countries with high number of electric cars will soon have to enact laws to stop us from going mad.

[via The Verge, Atlanta Channel 11 News, image via mariordo59’s flickr]