Hidden neighborhood danger — Milwaukee street lights shocking dogs, killing one

By Hillary Mintz

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    MILWAUKEE (WISN) — Erich Gross says he lost his best friend, Ted, a poodle mutt he rescued from Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission.

“Just the trauma of dealing with watching your dog die. I’m still working on that. I lost a pet and it seems like the response from the city – I expected more,” Gross said.

That November day, near 59th Street and McKinley Avenue, it had just rained. Gross was raking leaves to clear a sewer grate. His dog’s damp leash, which has some metal on it, touched the street light pole and a volt shocked the small dog. Gross tried to save him.

“I touch him to touch his leash, and I’m getting shocked, and I was trying to get him undone, and I couldn’t do it because every time I touched him, I was getting jolted and thrown around,” Gross said.

Despite even giving his dog CPR, the shock killed his beloved pet.

Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works maintains it was an “unusual incident” and that a “malfunction” caused the pole to become energized.

DPW has declined a request for an on-camera interview with 12 News multiple times for this report.

Experts with whom WISN 12 News spoke said when something like this happens, the problem likely began below ground. You can’t see it, but it doesn’t take much for a metallic surface to heat up and become dangerous.

“Most likely what happened is the insulation, the wires on the inside of the pole, frayed or got pinched and contacted the inside metallic part of the pole, energizing the pole,” Nathan Weise said.

Weise is an Associate Professor of electrical engineering at Marquette University. He said when a phenomenon like this occurs you cannot see it.

WISN 12 News asked the professor what could cause a street light to become energized.

“A lot of time, time and aging. Could be a rat, a squirrel, something gets in there chews off that material, uses it for their nests, that then somehow touches the pole,” Weise said.

The day Gross’ dog died, he called his Alderman, Michael Murphy.

“My apologies on behalf of the city because it shouldn’t occur; it was a short, and this poor dog lost its life. I did ask the engineers what was the cause and they said it was indeterminate; they really couldn’t, so they re-wired the whole thing,” Murphy said.

Murphy said the city’s lighting system will soon get an upgrade, using about $20 million from the American Rescue Plan Act for new infrastructure.

“So this wasn’t in response to this incident, but we know our system, our lighting system is 100 years old,” Murphy said.

DPW said the electrocution was not caused by old circuits. They also said they didn’t do widespread street light pole testing because they believed it was an isolated incident, but city officials felt otherwise.

“I think, obviously, even if the incident happens once every 20 years, I think they should be testing,” Murphy said.

As it turns out, a report obtained by 12 news revealed another dog was shocked just weeks after Ted. This time on the south side near 5th Place and Warnimont Avenue.

DPW responded and concluded “equipment failure” was the cause.

Now, three months later, after watching his dog die, Gross is determined to not let this happen to any other pet or person.

Gross has set out going pole to pole with several handheld voltage testing devices.

Gross is a mechanical engineer by trade but has been studying up on electrical engineering in light of what happened.

“I have found numerous boxes with where the covers are loose or open,” Gross said.

He’s then reporting any concerning hot spots to the city.

“I realized we probably have a lot of these around the city going unreported, there to kill somebody, it got my dog, but who’s it gonna get next?” Gross said.

The new lighting infrastructure system could be in place by next year.

DPW tells WISN 12 News they do not regularly test street lights throughout the city.

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