A Meter's Garbled Tale

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By the way: some years ago I recorded the electric meter readings of apartment 104. I suspected that nobody lived there and if the theory was correct the meter readings would prove it. I recorded the meter readings for a number of dates, but unfortunately did not record the year. My readings confirmed to my satisfaction that the place was largely uninhabited. Here are the readings, along with three of our own meter readings:
(stopped) 01500 - 5 Jan
(stopped) 01500 - 7 Jan
(stopped) 01500 - 8 Jan
(running) 01502 - 17 Jan
(running) 01502 - 18 Jan (ours) 78990
(running) 01503 - 19 Jan (ours) 78915 (our readings make no sense - counting increases. Could the correct number for 18 Jan have been 78890?)
(running) 01503 - 20 Jan (ours) 78938
(running) 01504 - 21 Jan
516 - Mar 5
517 - Mar 7
517 - Mar 8
539 - Mar 31
Needless to say, when the meter was running at all it was running very very slowly. My most recent readings are:
(stopped) 02088 - 5-26-06
(stopped) 02088 - 5-31-06

And that, folks, is a Meter's Garbled Tale.