And I asked her to unplug the car.
She rolled her eyes.
“Fine.”
She unplugged it.
I went back inside.
I thought that would be the end of it.
I was wrong.
The following evening, I noticed her car parked near my driveway again.
At first, I thought she might simply be visiting someone.
Then I saw the charging cable.
She had plugged herself into my house again.
I stood inside my living room, watching through the window.
I couldn’t decide whether I was angry or simply exhausted.
I had tried talking.
I had tried being reasonable.
And she had ignored me.
That’s when I decided I needed a different approach.
Not revenge.
Not anything dangerous.
Just a lesson.
A lesson that would make it impossible for her to misunderstand the situation.
The Plan
The next morning, I examined the area around my garage.
I realized the problem wasn’t just Monica’s behavior.
It was that my outdoor electrical outlet was accessible from the driveway.
There was nothing preventing someone from walking up and using it.
So I made a few changes.
I installed a weatherproof locking cover over the outlet and arranged the area so that accessing it without permission would no longer be convenient.
I also placed a clear notice reminding anyone that the outlet was private and that electricity was not available for unauthorized use.
Most importantly, I documented everything.
I saved my previous electricity bills.
I recorded the unusually high usage.
I photographed the charging cable whenever Monica used my outlet.
And I contacted the utility company to ask whether they could help me understand the sudden increase.
I wanted facts—not accusations.
If the situation escalated, I wanted to be able to prove exactly what had happened.
The Next Evening
Sure enough, Monica returned.
She parked in approximately the same place.
She got out.
She walked toward my garage.
And then she stopped.
From inside my house, I watched her stare at the newly secured outlet.
She tried the cover.
It didn’t open.
She looked around.
Then she walked back toward her car.
A few minutes later, she came to my front door.
She was furious.
“What did you do to the outlet?”
I opened the door.
“I secured my property.”
“You can’t do that!”
I almost laughed.
“It’s my outlet.”
She insisted that she had been using it for days.
I reminded her that was precisely the problem.
