DeKalb County woman battling cancer says squatters stealing her home's power

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - A woman battling cancer in DeKalb County says a group of squatters living next door to her home are stealing her power.

Rebecca Stinson said first her lights started flickering. Then they turned off, leaving her in the dark with no heat, no hot water, no stove.

And this is all as the DeKalb County woman fights bladder cancer.

"That's food that sat in my refrigerator and freezer that has gone bad," Stinson told FOX 5. "I don't have any food."

When Georgia Power showed up last week, it found the problem.

Someone had hooked up jumper cables to her condo building's electric meters to power a house nearby that was supposedly vacant.

"The night Georgia Power came out and took the jumper cables off and boarded their box up. They went back into the box again," she said.

A spokesperson for Georgia Power confirmed the company has been in touch with Stinson but said they  couldn't go into specifics of her situation due to company police.

However, the spokesperson said that tampering with these meters is very illegal and very dangerous.

Rebecca Stinson

Stinson says Georgia Power was able to give her back electricity to the upstairs half of her home, but she'd have to hire an electrician herself to fully fix the problem.

She says her DeKalb County neighborhood has a big problem with squatters, and she's even confronted them.

"When Georgia power was out here, I was truly crying. Because it’s sad that an old senior citizen has to live this way, and it’s not her fault," she said. "I pay my bills."

Meanwhile, Stinson says she's been in touch with the owner of the vacant condo who planned to start the legal process of booting the squatters.

That's become her personal mission.

"I’m going to get everybody I can within my power to get you away from here," she said. "Because you’re causing me issues."