Electrician Used Potato Chip Bag To Sneak Off The Job For Two Years

#1

According to Yahoo News Australia, 60-year-old Tom Colella was a senior union delegate and had worked as an electrician for the same company for 20 years, He lost his job after an anonymous letter to his firm claimed that he left work to play golf at least 140 times over the last two years.

#2

Colella knew his company could track his location using his cell phone. He allegedly hid his PDA a personal digital assistant in an empty foil potato chip bag and sealed it up. It turns out that the foil lining in the bag DOES block the GPS signal, similar to a "Faraday cage," a device that blocks electromagnetic fields, that was first developed in 1836.

#6

A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure used to block electromagnetic fields. A Faraday shield may be formed by a continuous covering of conductive material or in the case of a Faraday cage, by a mesh of such materials.

#4

A Faraday cage operates because an external electrical field causes the electric charges within the cage's conducting material to be distributed such that they cancel the field's effect in the cage's interior. This phenomenon is used to protect sensitive electronic equipment from external radio frequency interference (RFI). Faraday cages are also used to enclose devices that produce RFI, such as radio transmitters, to prevent their radio waves from interfering with other nearby equipment. They are also used to protect people and equipment against actual electric currents such as lightning strikes and electrostatic discharges since the enclosing cage conducts current around the outside of the enclosed space and none passes through the interior.

#3

Bernie Riordan, a commissioner at the tribunal, said:

"I can find no plausible explanation why Mr. Colella would create a Faraday cage around his PDA, except to obstruct the GPS collecting capacity of the device."

"Mr. Colella appears to have been deliberately mischievous in acting in this manner," he added.

#4

He still managed to update details about his assignments, making it look as though he was completing his assigned tasks. Details about Colella’s activities were revealed to the business through an anonymous letter.

#5

Colella was fired from his job. He is now reportedly working as an Uber driver.