house a good looking teenage girl answered the door. We told her who we
were and that we were responding to the shock call. The girl didn't know
anything about it. She yelled down the hall to her mother who in turn said
she had placed the call. The daughter then told us she was sorry and good
luck. (This should have been a clue to leave)
The mother came to the door and took us inside. We went to the bathroom
and she put her hand on the wall near the socket. She said she felt "it".
I put my hand where her's had been but didn't feel anything. I told the
woman this. She pushed her hand against mine to see if the added pressure
would make me feel it. I still didn't. I asked what I was supposed to be
feeling for. She said the wall is vibrating. (Clue #2)
I asked if this was the place where she received the shock from. She
informed me that it wasn't and we proceeded outside to the panel. She
opened the panel and the cover was off. She then started to stick her
finger in the bus work to show me where she got shocked from. I grabbed
her arm and pulled her back.
I explained about the open bus and that she needed a cover. This is when
it got strange. She pointed to her arm and showed me a bunch of red bumps.
They looked like chicken pocks. She said they were from the electricity.
I asked if they came after the shock. She stated no it was when the
electricity jumps out of the sockets and gets her. About this time my
lineman rolled his eyes and tried to get us out of there. Me being the
foreman, didn't listen. ( I should have)
Then she proceeded to tell us that the gamma rays from the sockets were
attacking her and going to give her cancer. I thought about this for a
minute and then told her to get me 2 pieces of aluminum foil 6 inches by 9
inches. She did.
When she returned I rolled the foil and then put it on the insulinks on the
roof connections. I wrapped 1 clockwise and the other counter-clockwise.
I told her with them being wrapped in opposite directions it would cancel
out the effects of the gamma rays. (My lineman walked away to keep from
cracking up).
Knowing I was transferring out of the area in a month, I explained to the
woman that if the foil ever came off not to try to reinstall it herself but
to call back and explain the situation and the Service Crew would gladly
replace it.
I had forgotten about it until about a year later. I got a call from the
Service Crew Foreman that replaced me. He was calling me everything in the
book because this lady wouldn't listen to anything he had to say until he
put the foil back on the connections.
