How long before a Chav on a housing estate decides to copy?

[AtomicRex]

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 Tuesday. Skip related content
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 metres 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 meathook 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.

[sadoksevoli]

Our breed of chavs hasn't managed to progress beyond trying to steal bits of the infrastructure for scrap, and getting fried in the process.

[sadoksevoli]

Our breed of chav hasn't managed to progress beyond trying to steal bits of the infrastructure for scrap, and getting fried in the process. ETA oops mobile site broke hence duplicate post and can't delete.

Edited by sadoksevoli on Tuesday 27th April 21:44

[john_p]

Apparently you can just run a separate wire parallel to the cables and it will induce a current from the emf .. no idea if true or not though!

[Dr.Doofenshmirtz]

Most normal chavs just steal electricity by tapping into the live feed before the meter.
Overhead power lines are usually High Tension (several thousand volts) and require a local transformer to get the power down to domestic 240v.

[Stevenj214]

AtomicRex said:

warned copycats not to try it: "It will kill you," he said.

Surely the fact that this guy isn't dead makes a fallacy of that statement?

[eldar]

Dr.Doofenshmirtz said:

Most normal chavs just steal electricity by tapping into the live feed before the meter.
Overhead power lines are usually High Tension (several thousand volts) and require a local transformer to get the power down to domestic 240v.

At least 110KV, and lots of amps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7KbVjj7kc&fea...

[Dr.Doofenshmirtz]

eldar said:

Dr.Doofenshmirtz said:

Most normal chavs just steal electricity by tapping into the live feed before the meter.
Overhead power lines are usually High Tension (several thousand volts) and require a local transformer to get the power down to domestic 240v.

At least 110KV, and lots of amps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7KbVjj7kc&fea...

Hive voltage yes, but relatively low amps. That's the whole point of delivering electricity via high tension overhead cable. Check your Ohms law.

Edited by Dr.Doofenshmirtz on Tuesday 27th April 22:47

[odyssey2200]

eldar said:

Dr.Doofenshmirtz said:

Most normal chavs just steal electricity by tapping into the live feed before the meter.
Overhead power lines are usually High Tension (several thousand volts) and require a local transformer to get the power down to domestic 240v.

At least 110KV, and lots of amps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7KbVjj7kc&fea...

SHHH!

Don't tell them that!


We could see some of that chap Darwin's theory at work!!

[the_smalls]

Dr.Doofenshmirtz said:

eldar said:

Dr.Doofenshmirtz said:

Most normal chavs just steal electricity by tapping into the live feed before the meter.
Overhead power lines are usually High Tension (several thousand volts) and require a local transformer to get the power down to domestic 240v.

At least 110KV, and lots of amps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7KbVjj7kc&fea...

Hive voltage yes, but relatively low amps. That's the whole point of delivering electricity via high tension overhead cable. Check your Ohms law.

Edited by Dr.Doofenshmirtz on Tuesday 27th April 22:47

As my Physics teacher used to say: "It's the volts that jolt, it's the mills that kill!"

Edited by the_smalls on Wednesday 28th April 08:52

[tamore]

eldar said:

Dr.Doofenshmirtz said:

Most normal chavs just steal electricity by tapping into the live feed before the meter.
Overhead power lines are usually High Tension (several thousand volts) and require a local transformer to get the power down to domestic 240v.

At least 110KV, and lots of amps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7KbVjj7kc&fea...

absolutely unrelated, but the link above also had one of the funniest videos i've seen on youtube. sound is a must.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqjtz3rEPG0&NR=...

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Stevenj214 said:

AtomicRex said:

warned copycats not to try it: "It will kill you," he said.

Surely the fact that this guy isn't dead makes a fallacy of that statement?

Much in the same way that "How clean is your house" keep saying "This will kill you" - yet the occupant has lived there for many years...

[Rocksteadyeddie]

These boys are amateurs compared to your average Indian powerline spagheti...

[Mr E]

john_p said:

Apparently you can just run a separate wire parallel to the cables and it will induce a current from the emf .. no idea if true or not though!

Induction

[Morningside]

I thought the usual method for stealing electricity is to put two spikes up the electric meter to bypass it - Normal procedure for drug growing I think.