Perita Clark turned off the lights when she left her home early Monday morning. When she returned almost 12 hours later, they wouldn’t come back on.
The city, without warning, shut off her power after she was unknowingly 8 cents short on her last bill.
“I was in the cold until they came back and turned them on,” Clark told the Democrat. “I just think that’s a little ridiculous of them to cut my lights off for 8 cents.”
The 74-year-old had no idea what happened because she said knew she had paid her $196.95 bill the week before, yet she came home to a fridge of “spoiled” milk and melted ice cream.
She called the city to ask what happened and was told that the few cents she failed to pay caused her power to be shut off. The city quickly rectified the mistake and apologized for the inconvenience.
Clark said she couldn’t find her bill earlier this month, so she called the city to ask what she owed for January and was told $196.95. The extra 8 cents wasn’t mentioned.
“In this particular case, it really was an anomaly that she short paid and it wasn’t caught,” said James Barnes, the city’s chief customer officer for Tallahassee Utilities.