An alternative plan is to leave the house before it fills with gas and blows you up. Then you can sleep under a bridge. For this and other reasons it's good to have an emergency car kit with bare essentials to see you through. And as you can see by this, he also destroyed the meter. While there's no blanket preparedness formula that can apply to every party, a ready mind and common sense will leave you better off than otherwise.
White man build big fire, keep warm hauling wood.