Farmers know this, every gone past a field of corn and seen sign declaring the corn not to be fit for human consumption? It is not because 1 person stealing corn does so much damage, but a 100 people? And not all of them will take just 1 corn or care about how they trample a dozen stalks to get the one they want.
In my youth if you were to late at the station to buy a ticket, you could buy one in the train, no problem all part of the service. Assholes like in this story ruined that because they would take a seat and then when checked would say they didn't have time to buy a ticket. Since you are not always checked you could often ride for free. So they changed the law, no more tickets sold by conductors (and fuck you if you are incapable of operating the machine) and a standard fine of 35 euro's no matter what. ALL because SOME assholes abused the system.
My 15kg foldable bike has 5kg of locks on it, because some people just can't keep their paws to themselves.
It is NOT about ONE guy stealing 5 cents of current, it is about the idea of taking something that doesn't belong to you.
Do you own a petrol car? Is there a lock on petrol cap? There didn't use to be one. Used to be it was just a ordinary cap anyone could open. Then assholes started to siphon gas wherever they could and locks became after market essentials and finally standard issue.
This kind of issue is nothing new, as said, farmers know it well, from corn to apples. 1 thief is not so bad, a thousand, and you got nothing left. If you cycle a lot, you will know that SOME people will put a tap out on hot days for passerby's to cool off and refill their water bottles. This usually lasts UNTIL an asshole comes by and totally abuses the situation by leaving a mess.
The person from the story is described as a habitual offender, he didn't just run out of power and decided to recharge his car without asking from a public socket, he does it as a matter of routine while he has no reason to assume it is okay. He is an asshole who takes and gives nothing.
If he walked into the office and made a single copy each day, would people claim that was okay? If he walked into the school to take a dump each day without asking, would that be acceptable?
And ten to one all the libertards defending this guy would shoot you in the face for daring to read a map by the light streaming out of their house.