My cousins called it hillbilly hot-wiring or something like that (southern Ohio). It's pretty common actually. Typically gets hooked up like that when someone doesn't pay the electric bill.

I had a cousin who lived behind his dads house in a trailer. His electric got turned off and so he made a male-male cable and hooked it up to an outside outlet and plugged it into an outlet in his trailer. It seemed to work just fine. I think he had it hooked up for over a month before my uncle noticed and unplugged it.

Next time you're driving through a not-too-affluent area, check the ground between houses or trailers for random extension chords, they're their.

-Argyle