Shocked: Meet the NY Couple That Has to Wear Plastic Gloves Because Stray Voltage Is Surging Through Their Home

For 25 years Millie and Harold Mendelson have been living in a 270-year-old home on property worth $2.3 million in New York. For the last 15 years though, the couple has been experiencing electrical shocks when on their property, especially around water.

According to CBS New York, the Pound Ridge couple even had to put down their dog who had chewed the skin off her legs, which they attribute to voltage being leaked from a substation near their property. Now, the Mendleson's have had enough and are moving, but they want the electrical company to pay for the value of their property and also some personal damages.

“My husband bought it so that he could enjoy it for the property; we bought it for the property,” Millie Mendelson told 1010 WINS according to CBS New York. “We had barns and horses and we can’t have them anymore, can’t have animals. It’s very depressing.”

Millie said that the shocks are similar to touching a live battery.

“You couldn’t use the pool. You were getting shocked around the property and the animals were going crazy. We couldn’t keep animals on the property,” Dr. Harold Mendelson is reported as saying.

CBS New York states that voltage blockers were installed by the electrical company in an effort to prevent stray shocks. ABC News reported further that the blockers had an alarm that would sound when the electricity surging through was reaching a dangerous level. It worked for a time, but the couple in recent years has been experiencing shocks, which they believes is leading to other physical problems:

[Harold] Mendelson said that he suffers from painful muscle spasms, including the twisting of the muscles in his fingers and toes. He said he also has episodes of vertigo.

His wife was suffering from most of the shocks, which he described as feeling "like a kickback." He said that the shocks are not enough to knock her to the ground, but are stronger than average static shocks that most people experience.

"She wears rubber shoes in the shower and rubber gloves at the sink," Mendelson said.

Feeling that the property is too dangerous for them to live on, the Mendelsons decided to move.

Contacting New York State Electric and Gas, CBS New York reports a spokesperson, who was unable to comment on the lawsuit directly, saying that the utility complies with state standards, which requires monitoring for stray voltage once each year.

ABC News reports the Mendelson's criteria for their new home in South Salem, New York, is that it be no where near a power company.

Watch the report:

(H/T: The Consumerist)