Meters can be tampered with there is a book called "Iron Gonads " that was available thru Lindsay hard to find publications which showed all kind of tricks how to speed up slow down reverse etc.
depending on the meter turning it upside down reversed the reading it did not speed it up. Many meters today are electronic based and many of the old tricks no ,longer work.

tampering with a meter many old style had a small lead seal you would break to remove glass cover then you went in and fidgeted with the set screws to speed it up or down . More often people fooled around using external magnets to slow the meter down not speed it up.
tampering with the meter could have resulted in fire by causing an arc in the base but it would be very aparant.
more than likely some one is bragging and did nothing to the meter. the utilty company can run a load test on the meter to determine if it is recording correctly. if you have any pictures email me and i will see if i can see the seal etc is in place nickmarkowitz@hotmail.com