From the outside, the building at 2306 N. Lincoln looks innocent and ordinary, a storefront and some apartments in need of nothing more than a few coats of paint.
Of all the residents there when she was, Franken–a graduate student in literature at the University of Illinois–and her husband, Steve Munro, were hardest hit by the electric company. When they moved there in September 1986, their landlord estimated that the gas-heated, one-bedroom unit would generate about $450 a year in utility bills. “And that was all utility bills!” Franken exclaims. “That includes gas and electricity.”
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“Our records show that [Franken’s] unit used the power, so she has to pay the bill,” says John Hogan, Edison’s chief spokesman. “All we have to go on is her word that she didn’t use the electricity; on the other side, we have the meter reading that says the electricity was used on those premises. Are we surprised? We’re surprised to the extent that the successive account there is using one-third the electricity. We have no way of knowing how or why so much electricity was generated there by [Franken], we just know that it was.”
The goofiness began soon after Franken and Munro moved in. “We should have known something was funny because we didn’t get a bill for three months,” says Franken. “I don’t know why. We didn’t do anything. We figured they would catch up with us sooner or later.”
Commonwealth Edison did not bill them in May. “Your current billing normally due for payment by June 8, 1987 is delayed,” the notice read. In an admittedly confused stab at resolving the senseless situation, Franken sent Commonwealth Edison a $75 check.
In desperation they called on their neighbors, and they learned that they were not alone.
“Months would go by, and Joe wouldn’t let Edison’s meter readers in,” says Chamberlain. “One time they shut off our electricity until Joe let them in. That was outrageous. I thought it was illegal. How could they blame us because Joe wouldn’t let them in? I used to complain all the time. Once I went to Joe’s house while he was having a party in his backyard. I said: ‘Joe, let those meter readers in!’”
