Tuesday, December 16, 2008

How Did This Pass Inspection? Oh, Yeah, We're In Chicago...

I do a lot of shopping at the Aldi's near my house. When it was just Adam and I, and I was desperately poor, the place was a life-saver; I'd spend less than half of what I'd spend at another grocery store.

I usually cut through an alley to save a few steps. I pass by the back of a building that for years was a neighborhood eyesore, but has been recently renovated, including the electrical works. In the alley, there are the fixtures for future electrical meters. Since they haven't sold any of the units in the building, they haven't installed any of the meters. So they covered the openings with cardboard.



You'll notice that the contractor took care to mark the cardboard-covered meters as "Hot." For those of you whose fathers weren't electricians or haven't done electrical work themselves (guilty as charged in both cases), "Hot" is electrician-speak for something that is electrically active. The boxes, which stand about chest-high, have juice running through them.

But hey, I'm sure it's UL-listed cardboard.

7 comments:

Cheer34 said...

I am sure no one can put a hand through that hard cardboard.....and so what if someone foolishly touches the wires that are so well protected.... they were warned weren't they.....a sign with HOT on it conveys the correct message to the average 9 year old kid.....

SkylersDad said...

Awww, the kids would probably only get hit by 110 volts, you have to really reach across two points inside to get into the 220!

Mnmom said...

OH MY GOD that is just begging some stupid boy to reach his hand in there!

My Dad once wired up some sockets he thought were dead - he had told the electrician not to wire them up when they were building the house. After installing the fixtures, he flipped the switch just to see what would happen. They came on! The circuit was hot! He about fainted over what could have happened.

Joe said...

Maybe it was the same DP contractors who almost asphyxiated you?

Anonymous said...

Well at least they spelled "hot" right. That's something isn't it?

dmarks said...

A friend of a friend worked on a plumbing contract in a large new Detroit apartment complex. He had to do something that took him from bathroom to bathroom.

He opened a toilet, and found a $20 bill taped under the lid. He took it. Every single toilet he checked had that. Scores of apartments.

It turns out that the main contractor had taped those their to bribe the plumbing inspectors.

So things might be worse in Detroit than Chicago.

kim said...

Stick your balls in there honey and see what happens.