Lightning Shocks Man Inside His Home

The current traveled through his cable line

A Westtown man was literally blown off his feet and knocked unconscious Tuesday morning when lightning hit his neighbor's tree. Rick Russo was inside his own home. So how the heck did that happen?!

The current traveled through Russo's cable TV line and he was unlucky enough to be holding his cable box at that exact moment. The shock knocked him off his feet and then knocked him out.

"It threw me across the room and I heard a big bang at the same time and obviously dropped," Russo told NBC 10's John Blunt.

When he came to, he ran to his neighbor's house. She's a cardiac nurse and rushed him to Chester County hospital. He was checked out and sent back home, a little dazed and tired but darn lucky.

"I don't know if I'm lucky or stupid... for holding the cable box," Russo said.

The National Weather Service in Mt. Holly said we had 5,600 lighting strikes in the area between 6 and 8 a.m. and 89 hits between 8 and 9 a.m.

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