Electric shock after lights tampered with
A North Canterbury man hoped families would enjoy the Christmas lights at his property, but instead he spent New Year’s Eve in hospital after vandals tampered with them.
For the past 15 years, Rangiora man Michael Johnson has decorated his house with Christmas lights. He spends about two months each year preparing the lights and adorning his property with large Santa figures.
On December 31, he planned to light his house up for the last time for the year, before packing them up until next Christmas.
When he went to turn them on, he realised half the lights on the front fence were not working.
Assuming it was a kink in the rope light, he checked the connections by running his hand along the rope and ‘‘got a big zap’’.
He wasn’t knocked over, but the shock was enough to warrant a trip to hospital, where he was told his heart rate had been thrown out of sync. He was still feeling the effect more than two weeks on, he said.
‘‘I saw the New Year in waiting for a paramedic to put an IV line in [for pain relief], but it could have been a whole lot worse if I had had a heart condition or a child or old person had touched it – they would be dead.’’
Security cameras, installed to deter vandals, showed three youths cutting the lights about 1am on December 31.
The images were grainy, and Johnson hoped anyone in the community with information would come forward.
A 3 metre-tall inflatable Santa on his property had also been damaged.
A ‘‘grown woman’’, who has now been identified, was caught on camera entering Johnson’s property to ‘‘fight’’ the Santa, which tore a hole in Santa’s foot.
‘‘You just wonder what makes people do such stupid things,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘This woman was in her 30s, it’s just unbelievable.’’
Johnson said the Santa was irreplaceable.
He had spent about $700 and a day-and-a-half fixing other damage.
The electric shock initially put him off decorating the house again, but so many people had encouraged him not to give up that he had vowed to continue the tradition, he said.
Senior Sergeant Paul Reeves, of Rangiora, said he estimated the three youths in the security footage were aged between 15 and 17.