Mole electrocution mishap claims "unorthodox" gardener

digger, originally uploaded by Mr Moor.

It's still early in the year, but someone may already have a lock on the 2007 Darwin Award:

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." ®

[Adds The Register.... 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.

Putting the "cute" in "electrocute."

Comments

[John G]

Never really felt comfortable with the idea of the Darwin Awards. Only the good die young, after all, as Henry Kissinger is still alive.

Presumably this guy had already spread his genes to some kids, anyhow.

[cfrost]

I’m thinking if the soil is wet enough to conduct electricity it will have less resistance than a mole insulated with fur thus conducting right around the mole, and if it’s too dry to conduct you won’t get a current to the mole anyhow. Working with fisheries research electroshocking equipment I’ve noticed that ducks, geese, and beaver will occasionally swim alarmingly close to an electric field generated in water with no apparent ill effects or response even.
To kill moles with electricity you'd probably need enough juice to actually heat the soil. Maybe your local power company will set up a substation for your garden plot.

[Paul Hooson]

I spent quite a few years running electrical repair shops, and repaired thousands of TVs, microwve ovens, stereos and VCRs.I used to do some things that absolutely horrified my other workers. Before I bought a picture tube rejuvenator, I used to take a 10,000 volt line with a diode from a B&W TV and use this to zap the cathode of another TV and clean the picture tube and make dark screened TVs look bright and like new. Holding a 10,000 volt line with just a kitchen pot holder isn't the most safe thing to do.

Sometimes you'd get shocked off the 25,000 volt flyback high voltage transformer from a color TV if it was defective, and your heart muscles would really slam against your rib cage and leave you sore for a couple of days. Sometimes you burn yellow electrical burn holes right through your fingers with defective high voltage equipment.

Nowadays, I stay with safer very low voltage artificial intelligence experiments and write and blog. But you kids have to be real careful with electricity out there. 380 volts of AC is just about good enough to make your arm turn black and fry right off, while 380 volts of DC could be a real heart stopping experience. That "mole" guy should have known better.

[Sir Oolius]

More likely, the mole committed homicide by turning the 380 volt cable back on the gardener. Just a guess.

[Alina Maßat]

It´s a very interesting theme and a simple answer of many questions

[Chris O.]

Yeah, 63 seems like a little old to be eligible for a Darwin.

[herbert browne]

oi... he may have forgotten that Zingst ist a wunderbar conductor von electrolytical anomalies! (or perhaps he vas attempting to plate der mole, ya?) Galvanized into inaction! what a way to go... ^..^

[Peter McGrath]

I submitted it, they shitcanned it. What does a poyson have to do?