Searl was convicted of stealing electricity by circumventing the electricity meter and causing damage to the electricity company’s equipment, according to an article carried out in The Times on November 26, 1982, headed “Electricity thief endangered blackout of the South.” He then launched a vendetta against the power company.
Searl has since claimed that he and his colleagues constructed over 50 variations of his “levity disc” in a variety of sizes and mastered their control. He argues that authorities’ persecution culminated in his unlawful imprisonment and the destruction of the majority of his work, forcing him to restart. He claims that in the early 1970s, one of his crafts went multiple times around the world without detection.