Meter-readers, SAS style

They are demanding higher and higher prices, and now they are training to kill us. Customers of the Czech Republic's main power company ČEZ have expressed concern in the wake of revelations that meter readers, who track down illegal connections to the grid, are now being trained in the art of war. "ČEZ and death on video," reads the headline on the Mladá Fronta DNES front-page report, which explains that two videos have now been included as evidence in an ongoing court case involving "electricity pirates," who misappropriated power from the national grid. In the first video, which shows training sessions of the "ČEZ army," electricians learn how to target an enemy's head with a revolver, how to hood and undress a prisoner, and how to use explosives. The second is a hidden camera report that inadvertently documents the death of an electricity pirate, who commits suicide in his garage when ČEZ commandos arrive at his home. "A dozen ČEZ ‘commandos’ have been convicted" of blackmail, and risk being sentenced to up to 12 years in prison, notes the Prague daily, which adds that they have the support of their company.