{"id":285635,"date":"2026-02-11T11:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/285635\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:18:10","slug":"nurse-from-northern-israel-shocked-to-discover-her-rented-apartment-became-a-drug-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/285635\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurse from northern Israel shocked to discover her rented apartment became a drug lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nurse who rented out her apartment in the northern city of Nesher says she was shocked to discover the property had been turned into a drug laboratory<\/a> without her knowledge \u2014 and that she is now facing a demand to pay nearly 167,000 shekels for allegedly stolen electricity.<\/p>\n

The woman, identified only as M., serves as a head nurse in a hospital department in northern Israel. About six weeks ago, she received a call from Nesher police asking her to report urgently to the station. She said she had no idea why.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived, I was in complete shock,\u201d she said. \u201cI rented the apartment to someone who seemed completely normal. The rent was paid every month without problems. I never imagined this is what he was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police told her the apartment she owns \u2014 which had been rented for about a year and a half \u2014 had been converted into a drug-growing operation. Authorities said the suspects had connected the property illegally to the electricity grid.<\/p>\n

M. was questioned and later cleared of any involvement. Police formally recognized her as a crime victim and provided written confirmation of that status.<\/p>\n

About two weeks after her visit to the police station, she was permitted to enter the apartment. She said she found it devastated.<\/p>\n

Cabinets and furniture were piled up, doors had been torn from their hinges and dozens of electrical wires hung from walls and ceilings. The central air-conditioning system was destroyed and dozens of sandbags filled the rooms.<\/p>\n

A private appraiser she hired estimated the damage at approximately 135,000 shekels, describing the apartment as unfit for habitation due to severe structural, electrical and water damage resulting from its use as an illegal drug-growing site.<\/p>\n

M. said she deposited a security check equal to three months\u2019 rent that she had received when signing the lease, but it was returned unpaid.<\/p>\n

She later received a demand from the Israel Electric Corporation for 166,840 shekels for electricity allegedly stolen at the property through the illegal connection. Her name appears on the initial demand alongside the tenant and an alleged accomplice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I was still in shock from the enormous damage to the apartment, I received this demand and couldn\u2019t understand how I\u2019m connected to it,\u201d she said. \u201cI was recognized as a crime victim. They stole from me too.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that when she signed the lease, the tenant asked that utility bills remain in her name, with the tenant reimbursing her monthly. The electricity payments were made through her standing bank order, and she said the monthly bills appeared normal, amounting to a few hundred shekels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI now understand how naive I was,\u201d she said. \u201cBut throughout the rental period the bills were reasonable. I had no reason to suspect unusual activity or that he had made a pirated connection to the grid. I also don\u2019t understand how the electricity company didn\u2019t detect theft of this magnitude for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

An indictment has since been filed against the tenant and an alleged accomplice, stating they carried out an illegal connection to electricity lines, she said.<\/p>\n

M. met with representatives of the Israel Electric Corporation on Jan. 8, 2026, at its Haifa branch and asked that her name be removed from the payment demand. She said she presented police documents confirming her status as a crime victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response was that I\u2019m not the first or last person this has happened to, but since the electricity account was not transferred to the tenant\u2019s name, as far as they\u2019re concerned the debt is also mine,\u201d she said. \u201cThey told me that if I don\u2019t pay, the case will go to court and a judge will decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called the demand unjust. \u201cThere is no logic, no justice and no morality in imposing this payment on someone who did not commit a crime,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Attorney Barak Siman-Tov, who specializes in electricity law, said that under regulatory guidelines, the registered consumer is generally responsible for electricity consumption at a property. However, he noted there is an exception: if the registered consumer proves another person was the actual user, the company may charge the actual consumer instead.<\/p>\n

He advises landlords to ensure utility accounts are transferred to tenants\u2019 names and to document meter readings when handing over a property.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated requests, the Israel Electric Corporation did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nurse who rented out her apartment in the northern city of Nesher says she was shocked to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-285635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}