Shocking visit

A few months back I was working on SH1 at Maroa near Taupō. It was around 3.30pm when I saw two little girls standing on the roadside. I was a bit worried for their safety so offered them a ride home.

They said they’d like that and we’d probably see their mum on route. “It’s not far,” they said.

We still hadn’t arrived at the farm 15 km later. We eventually found it and started driving up the long driveway.

The girls’ dad, ‘Farmer Giles’ was in an adjacent field walking his six large dogs, so I stopped for a chat.

He was very grateful and his dogs were really friendly towards me.

At this point I inadvertently touched his fence – this turned out to be electric, giving me a blast that nearly floored me.

When I recovered a few seconds later, I noticed a large pedigree dog about 50 yards away running hell for leather and yelping its head off.

I asked Giles what was wrong with it. He replied, “You were stroking the dog when you got your shock. You just electrocuted it.”

He wasn’t smiling any more so I left quickly.

– Constable Tony Ellis, Taupō Road Policing Group