A woman is going viral on TikTok after showing how she handled a situation with her electric vehicle charger that she says pushed her to the edge.
Blake Gabrielle (@blake_gabrielle) filmed the video as she walked up to her car in what appears to be a parking garage, clearly frustrated with what she found.
“People out here are, like, real-life ruthless,” she says.
She explains that she went to unplug her car, only to realize somebody had already unplugged it. When she looked closer, she saw the car parked next to hers had taken her charger and plugged it into their own vehicle.
“I have half a mind to just take theirs out,” she says. “I’m doing everything in my power not to let my pettiness through.”
That didn’t last long. After sitting with it for a moment, Gabrielle decides to act. She walks back over and removes the charger from the other car.
“You took my charger out of my car,” Gabrielle says. “Oh, well.”
In the comments section, some viewers questioned whether the other driver may have already charged her account before she unplugged it. As of this writing, the video has more than 616,400 views.
Who Pays For The Charge?
Whether she ended up paying depends on how the charger bills and how the session was set up.
According to Kelley Blue Book, most public chargers link the session to whoever starts it, usually through an app, a card, or the car itself. If her session was still active when the cable got moved over, there’s a chance the charge could have kept running under her account for at least a short time.
Some chargers bill by how much power you use, others by how long you’re plugged in. Either way, according to various Redditors, if the session doesn’t shut off when the cable is pulled, it can keep running until someone ends it or it stops on its own.
That said, many newer chargers and vehicles are built to prevent this. Some cars lock the cable while charging, and many networks automatically end the session once it’s unplugged. In those cases, the next driver would have to start their own session.
Why Would Someone Do This?
To no one’s surprise, unplugging someone else’s car while it’s still charging is widely considered bad etiquette.
Most drivers expect their car to be left alone, especially if it’s still pulling power. While it’s possible Gabrielle paid for part of someone else’s session, it’s not a sure thing. It really depends on how that specific charger works and whether her session was still active when the other car plugged in.
Viewers Encourage Woman To Take Action
People in the comments section were less focused on the drama and more focused on what it might have cost Gabrielle, with many wondering if the stranger’s move meant she was footing the bill.
“Wait, does that mean you paid for their charging time?” the top-liked comment on her video read.
“Wait, is that a free charging station, because wouldn’t they be charging on your payment information?” another asked.
Others shifted to solutions, offering ideas to avoid the situation altogether or prevent it from happening again.
“I feel like electric vehicles should automatically lock the charger into your car until you unlock it,” one person suggested.
“What type do you have? My Ioniq 6 locks the charging cable unless I unlock it,” another commenter said, pointing to a feature that could prevent this.
“Nah, you did the right thing, but also get a charging lock adapter,” a third added.
Then there were the viewers who were more interested in how she handled it than anything else.
“I was legitimately worried you weren’t going to unplug it,” one person wrote.
“Umm - their tires still have air??” another joked.
“Two wrongs make it right… or something like that,” another commenter said.
“I am so happy you unplugged it!” a fourth added.
Motor1 has reached out to Gabrielle via a direct message on TikTok. We’ll update this if we hear back.
@blake_gabrielle Why are we unplugging other people’s cars??? Like what is happening???
♬ original sound - blake_gabrielle
