Shocking walks: Dog owners report jolts from sidewalk utility covers

While dog owners in Philadelphia say they're finding out about a hidden high-voltage hazard the hard way, utility covers on sidewalks can apparently become electrified, shocking unsuspecting. Pops introduces Maggie Kent and spoke with one dog owner who found this out first-hand. She's live in Spring Garden now with the story and the response from the power company today. Quite a story, Maggie. Yeah, well, Brian, I'm telling you, they're just finding out about this as their dog kind of scampers away during the middle of their walk, shocked, and literally shocked from their paws after they step over a utility cover that may still have some voltage coming off of it. We did check in with PICO. They say they're also aware of some of these reports. On the busy streets of Center City, it's something you may not notice. Utility covers litter the sidewalk, a signal of a network of connections below ground, some powered by electricity. Lisa Arbitman only started noticing them recently while walking her dog, Remington. She says his paws were shocked when he stepped on a ground cover still giving off voltage. It's not the first report we've received into our newsroom about the issue. For Lisa, it happened on Broad and Callowhill Street near police headquarters. It must have been a grate, one of the grates being still had electricity. It's a fairly new building, the police building, so who knows. It happened one other time that that was also on Broad Street. While Remington wasn't badly injured, he was shaken. He was scared and it took me a while to get him back out. So, I mean, he didn't want to walk for a while, so he would only walk on grass surfaces. PICO says it's gotten similar reports. Some were their ground covers, others were not. When they get a report, the utility company sends a team to test for voltage and fixes underground wires if needed. Now, after an earlier inquiry from Action News, PICO says it went out to 23rd and Cherry Streets and did find an issue there and they've since fixed it. We did report this location to the utility company as well. We're live in Spring Garden, Maggie Kent, Channel 6 Action News. Brian? Okay, Maggie, thank you.