Legality of removing meter
This is generally a contract (utility rules) problem

For just about all utilities in the US, what happens if you break a meter seal is governed first and foremost by your utility's service rules.  Typically, the primary punishment for such thing is the utility denying you service; if actual theft of electricity is discovered, they can go further by taking the thief to court.  However, for cases like yours, where a meter needs to be pulled for work, there will be processes in place, either to accept requests for disconnects for scheduleable service, or to allow the breaking of meter seals for emergency work.

For the former, Duke Energy simply has you call their residential customer service line (7AM-9PM EST) and ask them, with 24h notice, of wanting to "drop service" at a specific time, and then have it "re-tapped" when the work's done, as per their page on the topic.  For a true emergency scenario, they also have a procedure by which one can cut the meter seal, then call, but that will require them to come out in person to reseal the meter when done; with modern smart meters, they can drop your service remotely by triggering a disconnect internal to the meter, which makes this sort of request far easier for them to handle.