FLATBUSH, Brooklyn (WABC) — Many of us struggle to swing utility bill payments — gas and electric rates are spiking and difficult for many to pay for monthly costs.
When a Brooklyn woman’s energy bill mysteriously surged into the tens of thousands and threatened with power cut-off if she didn’t pay, it took 7 On Your Side to track down the culprit.
“I was like cursing, I said, what the… is this?” said Diana Wright when describing her reaction to seeing the total on her Con Edison bill.
“It said $31,000,” Wright said.
It was a five-figure amount due, but not for Wright’s home in Flatbush where she has lived since 2011 and has paid her bill every month.
“This is $183 and then it jumped from this to $31,850,” Wright said while looking through pervious bills.
Wright discovered this monstrous bill was for eight years of unpaid energy bills for a property in a different borough, 20 miles away from her home in Brooklyn. It was for a first-floor unit in a multifamily house in the Bronx.
When Wright was given the address of the home and asked if she was familiar with the neighborhood, she replied, “no.”
Wright says once she informed Con Edison there was a mistake, the utility company wanted her to prove her innocence.
“They told me that I had to go through this process, I had to get a letter from my employer stating they’ve only known me at my current address, that I had to file the FTC report and then get a police report,” Wright said.
While Con Edison investigated the whopper of a bill, Wright was delinquent and said she had to call every month for an extension or risk her own house’s power getting cut and was incensed when it did.
“They shut off my account in May of 2025 because I missed it by one day. They forced me to pay $650 to turn on the lights at my actual home. I owe over $41,000 now because it’s accumulating interest,” Wright said.
She ran out of energy fighting this on her own.
“When I first told my parents, they said call Nina Pineda,” Wright said.
7 On Your Side contacted Con Edison and the utility company followed up by putting Wright to work. She had to prove she never lived at the address in the Bronx.
In addition to her two jobs as an administrative assistant and a paralegal, she had to provide years of paystubs, current and former leases, utility bills, and tax returns.
7 On Your Side also contacted the Department of Environmental Protection to dig up outstanding water bills and a DEP spokesperson confirmed, “We do not have any record of a Diane Wright associated with this property.”
After all that, Wright got the good news that the $31,000 from the house in the Bronx that had been blowing up her bill had been blacked out.
“I’m very grateful. I should have listened to my parents ages ago. No one listened to me until I called you and your team started pushing them,” Wright said.
She got the $31,000 off her back, plus $10,000 in interest and importantly, a reimbursement check for $650 for turning her lights back on in May of 2025.
“Thank you, you guys are amazing. I appreciate you. Again, like everybody says, call 7 On Your Side. End of discussion,” Wright said.
A statement from Con Edison says, “Scams and identity theft victimize consumers across many industries, including utilities. We understand how stressful these situations are and try to protect our customers by sharing prevention tips and running ongoing outreach campaigns to help them recognize and avoid potential scams. After working with this customer and reviewing the documentation that we needed, we removed the disputed charges from her account last winter and refunded the $650 payment. We urge anyone with a billing issue to contact us as soon as possible, so that we can seek a resolution with the professionalism and efficiency our customers deserve.”
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