Story Archive

Lights Out

Clive Saleman received a letter at his home in Oakura, New Zealand. It was addressed: “To the occupier, 771800Streetlights NPDC Control Point 394, 9 Shearer Drive, Oakura 4650.” The letter, from Meridian Energy, gave the “occupant” of the street light seven days to provide them with his customer details or the electricity would be cut off. “We were a little bit alarmed about what was going to happen to us,” said Saleman. “Then we thought, hang on a minute, we’re not with Meridian Energy, we’re with Nova Energy.” Then he realized that the letter might actually be addressed to the street light on his property. “I went down to the light and knocked on the door to see if they wanted their mail,” he said, “but no one came out.” A Meridian spokesman eventually apologized for the mixup, saying the letter was generated by an “automated administrative process.” (MS/Fairfax News) ...It starts with computers sending letters to light poles. It ends with Skynet.