This was hardly a shortcut so I could get my jollies off or cheat the power company; the temperature was in the 20's and teens here in mid-December and I didn't have power for 13 days. THIRTEEN DAYS. So yes, it seemed like a reasonable risk when the alternative was my 300,000 dollar investment in a house gets destroyed by busted pipes. It's real easy to sit on your high horse and say what you'd do when it wasn't the meter box on your house lying under a tree limb and a foot of snow and the thermostat in your home reading 38 degrees.

 Reply

Co-worker's daughter's daughter :-)

It was a wired that looked like it needed to be plugged in (and thus would be electrically dead) that disapeared into a nook/niche where a former owner had put his entertainment console.

I think it was probably some kind of hack to avoid putting in a legit socket where the console was.

 Reply

I suspect that they moved in and disregarded it. "Look, a power cord that looks like it needs to be plugged into power something, better leave it alone".

It was apparently coming out from the nook/niche where the previous owner had his entertainment console, and disapeared into the wall. They simply never thought it was powered because it looked like a power cord for something that needed to be plugged in, not a wire providing power. Why would they plug it in if they didn't know what it was for?

I'd probably have asked what it was for myself.

 Reply

SteveDave:

I was pretty astounded as well. I never saw the layout, the wire, or the couch, but I did see the results. The grandmother brought her granddaughter through our office one day and introduced her too me. Really bad burn scars around her mouth. Her lower lip was basically destroyed. If I remember correctly, the current exited out her wrist.

It's true, it happened, and yes the parents obviously didn't properly child-safe the house. I actually can't remember the details about the house, I *think* my co-worker's granddaughter might not have been at her own parent's house. They were either renting it, or might have been at another person's house when this occured. I do remember that they said it was from a niche/nook where they think the previous occupant had their entertainment console. It's certainly possible that whatever circuit the wire was hooked up to WAS tied to a switch, and if they did check it, it wasn't live at the time.

 Reply

And NEVER EVER step on the metal drain cover in the middle of the shower basin!

 Reply

The sentence could've ended there and it would be just fine.

 Reply