Man Steals Electricity With Meat Hook

[Metspitzer]

This seems unlikely. I would like to hear more details.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police are investigating a man for theft after he siphoned electricity off a high-voltage overhead transmission line for one month with the help of an ordinary meat hook, authorities said on Tuesday.

The 36-year old man from Sibbesse in Lower Saxony concocted the plan to steal electricity after the power company cut him off for failure to pay his bills, police said.

The man attached a cable to the meat hook and tossed it onto an overhead power line. He then drew power from the transmission line to his home, located about 150 meters away.

"I've never seen anything like this in my 34-year-career," said Friedrich-Wilhelm Lach, chief executive of regional utility Ueberlandwerke Leinetal GmbH, told Reuters. "It's incredibly dangerous and utterly stupid."

An employee of the utility noticed the meat hook during a routine check. Lach said the man was lucky he is still alive and warned copycats not to try it: "It will kill you," he said.

(Reporting by Christopher Lawton; editing by Paul Casciato)

Copyright 2010 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or

[Larry Fishel]

Maybe he had his own transformer? (Or maybe they're using the term "high-voltage" very loosely?)

[mm]

Yeah, the latter especially. Some people talk like anything controlled by the electric company is high voltage.

[Jon Danniken]

Motor nomenclature refers to 240VAC as "high voltage". This in reference to

120VAC, of course.

Jon

[mm]

Doesn't Harbor Freight sell a combination meat hook / transformer, for just this purpose?

[The Daring Dufas]

He was convicted of the theft and sentenced to death by electrocution. At least perhaps in China, uh, no, they shoot them then harvest their organs for transplants.

TDD

[ransley]

only $9.95

[HeyBub]

[...]

Sure. I used to work for a company that did meter inventories for Rural Electric Cooperatives.

About once a year they'd find somebody who had tapped into the primaries and fed his own transformer (probably stolen).

More often, they'd find meters upside down (they run backwards) and meters bypassed altogether.

[Doug Miller]

I doubt that it was 120VAC in Germany...

[Bill Gill]

I knew a man once who told us that he periodically went out and reversed his meter. I didn't ask him how he justified stealing.

Bill

[Stormin Mormon]

Thanks, I got a good smile from this comment. I'm sure they do, in some countries.

[terry]

Yeah and too often as 'phases'! Although the two ends of a centre tapped and grounded 240 winding being actually (and most often in domestic service) the two 120 ends of one single phase!

[terry]

OK: Story about a man, (with my apologies to the canny and thrifty race of Scots) who, in, say Glasgow, used to blow down the gas pipe every night before going to bed. He must have had a bagpipe player's lungs!

Eventully the man came from the gas company to read the meter. And was very puzzled!

After reading the meter and doing some calculations and looking in his billing book he scratched his head and announced;

"He didn't undersand it, but the gas compnay seemed to owe the customer seven shillings and sixpence"!

The Apocrypha.

[JIMMIE]

When I did duty in S Korea this type of thing was very common.

Jimmie

[JIMMIE]

Really, whenever the guys from Ga Power would do a power disconnect they would pull the meter and put it back upside down and put a seal on it until you wanted it hooked back up.

Jimmie

[Metspitzer]

I have probably told this story before, but I want to hear it again.

We went to a job in Texas. We got there on Thursday after hours and Friday was a holiday. We asked the neighbor (duplex) if we could use a drop cord for the weekend and they agreed. We went the long weekend taking cold showers. We had a lamp, a stereo, and a hot plate.

Monday we went to work and told my sister (her husband was one of the construction workers) to go and have the utilities turned on. When we got home the power was still off. She said that the power company closed a 6 but they would be out to turn the power on that day.

6PM and no one showed. We went outside to the meter and the power company had left the meter in the can, but it was turned sideways so it was not plugged into the buss. I told my brother in law (welder) that all that was needed was to just cut the paperclip sized wire and just turn the meter and plug it into the busses. After thinking about having to take another cold shower we decided that plugging in the meter and just telling the power company what we had done should be enough.

I cut the tab and plugged the meter in. We were standing there smoking a cigarette and I told him that plugging in the meter upside down would make the meter run backwards.......I showed him how that worked and we decided to just let it run like that for a few hours and would flip it around before bed time.

When we got back in the house and started flipping for who would get a hot shower first..........15 min after we had put the meter in, the power company came out and found the meter upside down and pulled it out and took it with them.

We had to go to the power company that day and explain what we had done. They believed us and brought the meter back.

[Higgs Boson]

Ssssshhh! We have to make nice to them so they'll keep lending us money so we can shovel it out to Goldman Sachs, so their executives can thumb their noses at Congress. Not that Congress is blameless; why did they repeal Glass-Steagel years ago, close their eyes to Wall Street and never pass any regulations to control the mad dog profiteers. "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." Tell that to the people who lost jobs and homes and the schools, parks, and old-age programs that are in the toilet.

[The Daring Dufas]

It's all the fault of the American people for voting morons into office. One of my grownup girlfriends voted for Bill Clinton because he was pretty, she didn't like the looks of the other candidate, Bob Dole. It's interesting that the bankers are being prosecuted for operating within the law. Greed is not against the law, you can't legislate altruism or morals. We now have our first Affirmative Action President who has already made a huge mess along with the rubber stamp Democrat law makers. No, I'm not a Republican, Republicans disgust me but Democrats are special, they horrify me.

TDD

[Tony]

I looked up the specs on the newer electronic meter I have. It mentions that it counts forward even if it is reversed. I also don't have a meter reader, they can read my meter from the office. I'm certain just removing the meter for even a second or so throws a flag for them to check it. Probably the easiest way to cheat would be to add a shorted winding or so the the current transformer. It's just a toroid with a few hand wired wires running through it. But I'm not that stupid, besides being dishonest, it would be way too easy for them to catch me. With the new meters they monitor usage and would certainly notice a sudden 50% reduction in my usage.

[Tony]

That's pretty good! I'd say you were very lucky to get power again as fast as you did.