Just went to the bar and caught the tail end of a report that a guy near Berlin just electrocuted himself by driving spikes into his lawn and wiring them to the mains supply to kill moles, [ taupes ]. Moles survived.

Alan.

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 01-18-2007).]

Good Lord!.
Where do people get crazy ideas like this from?.

Yay!.

I'm now picturing an obscure (and somewhat strange) Czechoslovakian cartoon which was screened here when I was a kid -- "The Mole."

Yeah, and to make it worse that guy was a retired electrician!

Oooooh yes, that cartoon! I watched it when I was a kid too.
I especially remember one episode when a grumbly guy with a real impressing garden wanted to kill the mole with a huge bottle of poison... the mole absolutely ruined is garden, and he‘s sitting inside, watching TV, a commercial for poison... then they tear away his antenna and the picture moves as they move the antenna... then he carries home a HUGE bottle of some awful looking stuff... but somehow the mole survives. It was just cool!

A news release quoted police sources saying he used 380v!

I remember a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs surfaces from one long "molehill" stretching back to the horizon and utters the immortal line-
"Nyyyea! I toyt I was headed to Albercoykee!"

Alan

No Brains !!

He should have known better.

Lucky he didn't kill anyone else.

Yup, and luckily a neighbor watched him, so he could at least keep the policemen from electrocuting themselves! They first took out all breakers (for some reason the panel was located in the garage) and pulled the plug before proceeding.

I don't think that guy really understood the idea of grounding... and to think he was an electrician...

Honestly, it's a tragedy with those perfectionist gardeners with too much free time.
My grandmother's landlord was one of them... he cut the lawn three times a week, in exactly the same pattern... result: permanent yellow lines where ever the wheels of the mower touched the lawn every time...

Or to remember that (Austrian) lady who could be seen taking her vacuum cleaner outside to vac the garden path... (honestly, I saw that myself!)

Krtek!

Alan,
My understanding of the European system, is that this should have blown a fuse or MCB before this guy got to the "install".
Earthing 2 phases, should trip something.
At least.

Ragnar,

you mean you dont vacuum your footpaths? I do. Not with an upright hoover, a cylinder one. It works quite well.

My dad used to hoover the apples from some of our trees before they grew and fell onto the grass.

Thinking about it now, it is probably a bit strange.