Yeah, I am from Austria, as said in a famous song here. The story about that electrician sounds like some stuff i heard from the days after WW II when most people assembled their appliances with parts from the dumpster, like a water heater made of wood and razor blades. just imagine to stick that thing into a metal pot!
We sure have some strange guys here ( some of the stories are in my thread "Austrian systems), but I never heard something like that. I think those guys can be found everywhere, but your story would be very likely to come from Spain or somewhere around. they have some REALLY strange work.
If that happened In the US he maybe was in the common belief of some DIY-guys "It's only 120V"
It also reminds me to the thread in the violations section "bare feet, a metal ladder and a drill motor".
