Good Catch in Arkansas Prevents Public Safety Incident

SWEPCO meter reader Christopher Brookover kept an apartment maintenance repairman from possible injury.

(Story by Karen Wissing)

Christopher Brookover, a meter reader for Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), had an order for new service at an apartment in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, in early February. Before completing the task, Brookover noticed a hot water heater outside apartment 19 – the exact apartment in need of new service.

After knocking on the apartment’s door and realizing no one was there, Brookover decided to try to find the apartment complex’s maintenance worker. Instead, he found a tenant and asked her to help him find the worker.

The maintenance repairman, who was on his way back to the job, had left the complex to get a part needed to change out the hot water heater.

“If it would have been me in his shoes, I would have come back to the apartment and assumed the electricity was still off,” said Brookover.

Thanks to Brookover’s Good Catch, the maintenance worker avoided the risk of being shocked.

Once the maintenance worker returned, Brookover connected the service, but turned the outside breaker off.

“I told him to treat those wires as if they’re hot just in case they’re being fed from a different source.”

Brookover, who has been with the company four years this month, said he was trained well when he was hired. He notes this Good Catch, as well as others he has detected, are “just me doing my job.”

“In order to achieve Zero Harm, you’ve got to be vigilant,” said Brookover. “You’ve got to not only protect yourself, but your co-workers, customers – all of them. You’ve got be observant.”