Last night we told you about Andrew Baird, the Hattieville man who strapped his refrigerator to his car’s roof on Monday morning and then used the vehicle to block the entrance to BEL. Baird says BEL damaged the appliance in a power outage that happened a month ago. And since then, he has been trying to get BEL to replace it but the company is only willing to offer $500 which is the depreciated value of the unit; Baird wants them to compensate him with the full value of a new one.
Talks were held, but nothing much has changed and tonight Baird remains adamant and angry. Today he told us that BEL did contact him again but that their offer remains the same and he finds it unsatisfactory. He told 7NEWS that he is now exploring other options. One thing we do know for sure is that Andrew Baird has other problems that will be settled in the courtroom. On Monday after police inspected his vehicle. It was discovered that the license and insurance had both expired. In addition of the traffic violations Baird has also received a summons to appear in court for another charge and that is the obstruction of private property – which comes after he blocked the entrance to BEL.
BEL’s Corporate Communications Manager Dawn Sampson told 7NEWS that Andrew Baird’s refrigerator was damaged because the copper ground wire for their transformer in the area had been stolen and that left the BEL distribution system without proper protection. Under these circumstances, homes especially those that are not properly grounded could experience damage to equipment during inclement weather or during power interruptions.
Sampson says BEL’s offer of assistance to Andrew Baird was made in a spirit of goodwill and not because the company was acknowledging fault. With that their offer to pay the depreciated value of the refrigerator remains in place. BEL further reports that there are over five thousand transformers countrywide and in many of these areas the ground copper wire have been stolen from the transformers leaving the distribution system vulnerable.
