German fried in mole-electrocution experiment

380V garden mishap

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Biology, 15th January 2007 23:58 GMT

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A retired German construction foreman who tried to electrocute moles in the garden of his weekend house ended up frying himself, Reuters reports.

The unnamed 63-year-old was found dead in said garden in Zingst. His body lay next to "a 380 volt cable and metal spikes rammed into the ground", according to police spokesman Uwe Werner.

Werner confirmed the ill-advised attempt at mole eradication had failed to do for the subterranean pest, although he conceded the voltage was "enough to run a cement mixer or heavy-duty power saw". He concluded: "It was in any event an unorthodox method to try to get rid of moles." ®

Bootnote

We reckon that since the voltage noted is 380V, the mole-buster must have been using a three-phase set-up - an audacious but evidently rather silly idea.

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