Boy Frank, that
is a sad tale. I guess the price was right on the wire at the time.
Way back when, I remember my father putting in an al. ground wire to a copper rod right below his bedroom window for a receiver gnd. So I thought that peeing on it occasionally (we lived out in the country) would help the salt conductivity of the soil around the ground rod.
About half a year later he wondered what varment had chewed off his ground wire right at the rod.
"Hmmm, yeah I wonder," said his lyin' son.