Man Strings Wire to Control Dogs--Boy, 2, Electrocuted

A 2-year-old boy in the high desert community of Lake Los Angeles was electrocuted when he touched an electrical wire that a neighbor had strung along a fence to discourage his dogs from digging out of the yard, authorities said.

Friends of the family, who asked not to be identified, said Andrew Verhoff, had been playing in the back yard with his 5-year-old brother, Patrick, on Monday morning as their mother busied herself with housework.

Mike Verhoff, 30, and his wife, Lee Ann, 29, didn’t worry about the children playing there because the yard had been enclosed with a chain-link fence, the friends said.

Neighbor With Dogs

Next door to the Verhoffs, in another yard surrounded by a chain-link fence, a neighbor keeps a couple of amiable dogs. The friends said that the dogs tended to dig under the fence.

To discourage them, the neighbor strung a single wire around the base, charged with electricity. Sheriff’s Department deputies said that at about 9:30 a.m. Monday something attracted Andrew’s eye on the other side of the fence. His hand was small enough to fit under the fence, and he reached through.

“Patrick ran into the house and called his mother,” one of the friends said. “Andrew was lying there. His hand was burned where he’d touched the wire. He was dead. . . .

“There was nothing anyone could do.”

The back yard was empty Tuesday--a rectangular patch of sandy dirt, marked only by a small toy wagon. The tidy little home at the eastern end of the Antelope Valley was empty.

Neighbors said the family was “down below”--an Antelope Valley term meaning they were in the Los Angeles area--close to comforting friends and relatives.

Lt. Gil Leslie of the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau said the case will be presented to the district attorney’s office within the next few days to determine if any charges should be filed against the neighbor, who was not identified.