Never Extort A Chief Legal Officer

A chief legal officer for a major Midwest conglomerate returns to Chicago after a two-year overseas assignment and moves into the luxury high-rise condo she bought before she left. On her first day home, a utility bill claims her vacant apartment used over half a million gallons of water in sixty days, and the city wants twelve thousand dollars.

The district utility manager, Gary Higgins, dismisses her state-certified inspector's report that the meter is corroded and malfunctioning. He refuses to correct the bill, has the water valve to her home capped and locked, and then charges her for water use after the pipes were sealed. When she threatens a ten-million-dollar lawsuit, he laughs, boasts of running the district for fifteen years, and vows to send the debt to collections and ruin her credit.

She walks out, calls the police to report extortion and the illegal destruction of private property, and waits as a cruiser arrives. Gary insists the shut-off followed city protocol, but the officers, faced with her certified report, decide the dispute must be assessed at her residence.