High voltage heating 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
I am a police officer in Portland, Oregon. I know this story is true because it happened just last night on my shift and I was one of the officers who responded. The Oregonian printed a small article today.
y coworkers and I had an odd call. An anonymous man called from a nearby truckstop to report that he saw a man climb down into an electrical transformer box that was behind the GI Joes store at Hayden Meadows here in Portland.
Behind the store in a concrete bunker that drops down about 5'1/2 feet into the ground. On top was a hokey plywood roof structure. This roof had been pushed aside and dark grey smoke was billowing out. Fire personnel arrived and put out the fire and then we found the man's body.
Upon investigating the scene we determined that the the concrete bunker supplies power to light a nearby horseracing track. The electricians onscene estimate the transformer inside was pre-1950 and had about 11,000 volts supplied to it. Along side the bunker was some coiled up house wire and a inwall heater. Our genius apparently pulled the lid off the bunker, stepped over and that was enough to arc the current to his foot and body. He then fell forward into the bunker head first and got cooked a second time as he lay against the wires. At the bottom of the bunker was a second in-wall heater. Our genius most likely thought he could tap in to this high voltage power supply. Several keys were beside the body.
The anonymous caller was probably this man's buddy. They had pulled up in a car or van were trying to get free power to run their heaters. When his buddy got zapped into the hole he ran scared.
At this time the genius had not been identified.
Submitted on 07/04/2002
Submitted by:
Chris Johnson
Reference:
The Oregonian, July 4, 2002
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