DOWNTOWN — On a crisp winter evening, Nicole Johnson took her 85-pound German shepherd, Jenna, on her nightly walk. What was supposed to be routine turned into a nightmare as the pair walked back into Johnson’s luxury apartment building on the Chicago River.
“We went to go in the front revolving door, and [Jenna] started screaming,” Johnson said. “She fell to the ground. She was shaking and she was having a hard time getting up.”
Johnson thought salt on the sidewalk had triggered her dog’s reaction, but when she went to wipe Jenna’s paws, she noticed the dog had defecated on herself. It wasn’t until a neighbor later posed a question in a resident group chat for Wolf Point East, her apartment building, that it clicked.
“Someone had asked if anyone else’s dog had been shocked by the metal plate in front of the building. And that’s when I realized, like, this is what happened to her,” Johnson said.
Johnson and other pet owners began sharing similar experiences, with some saying their pets had been shocked multiple times.
Alison Owczarski and her boyfriend, Patrick Howard, told Block Club Chicago that their 2-year-old dog, Wendy, had been shocked at least three times between December and February, with the most recent incident happening Feb. 4.
Owczarski said Wendy making a shrieking sound she had never heard before. Like Johnson, the couple thought salt might have irritated their dog’s paws, but then they noticed Wendy avoiding a metal plate outside the building.
When Wendy was shocked a third time, Owczarski said she immediately spoke with building management.
“It almost sounded like she stepped on a nail or something,” Howard said. “As we got into the lobby, she was continually shaking, which didn’t happen the first two times, so the last time was a little bit more severe than the first few.”
Emails shared with Block Club Chicago from Feb. 4 show Owczarski addressing concerns about a possible live current in front of the building.
“Thank you for the information, Alison. I will inform the maintenance team so they can figure this out ASAP,” management said in an emailed response that same day.
The couple thought the issue had been corrected until they heard other residents’ stories, including Johnson’s. Howard and Owczarski said they have since heard similar accounts from at least 20 other dog owners.
Michelle Frisch, who owns two large goldendoodles named Boone and Rue, said she first learned of the potential issue through her dog walker. The dog walker said Boone had become hesitant to walk in front of the building, instead hugging the outdoor wall when heading outside.
Frisch later experienced one of her dogs being knocked to the ground and another yelping when she took them out for a walk at night.
“Our doorman saw it and asked me about it … because multiple dogs have had that reaction,” Frisch said. “I’m just thinking, OK, that’s weird … and then the next time my dog walker came, he told me that he saw a dog touch the metal and freak out.”
Residents Still Looking For Answers
Hines, a real estate firm that owns Wolf Point East, said in a statement to Block Club on Monday that the company was communicating with affected residents. The company said it disconnected power at the building’s main entrance upon discovering an electrical issue. Its engineering team worked with third-party electrical teams to identify the cause of the issue “and resolved it following thorough testing,” the statement read.
“The well-being of our community is our top priority and we are communicating closely with all impacted pet owners,” said Hines spokesperson Marisa Monte-Santoro in a statement.
Yet pet owners who spoke with Block Club said they are still looking for answers and do not trust that the issue has been fixed.
Johnson said she has been corresponding with building management since Feb. 25. Emails show management responded on Feb. 26, saying they were working to identify the cause of the electrical issue since it was first reported.
“We’ve had electricians out several times, but there was no voltage detected anywhere outside the building,” management wrote in an email. “We believe this was due to the weather conditions at the time. We brought them back this morning, and we believe we’ve located the issue. We are working to resolve this currently. There is no present threat as the power was turned off and will not be turned back on until we confirm the issue has been taken care of.”
However, when Johnson followed up with questions about the live current and how management planned to prevent it from happening again, she was referred to the regional property manager.
On Feb. 27, Wolf Point East sent an email to residents informing them that management disconnected power and was investigating the issue.
“We will provide another update once everything is resolved. In the meantime, we are confident all areas of the building interior and exterior are safe and available for residents and pets,” Israel Alvarez, regional property manager, said in an email blast provided to Block Club.
The email did not mention that numerous dogs had been shocked in front of the building, raising concerns among the four pet owners who spoke with Block Club Chicago.
In a follow-up email to residents March 1, building management again said they would provide an update “after the work has been completed and have been assured they will not give the green light to restore power until the issue has been fully resolved.” The message encouraged residents to contact management and set up in-person meetings “to discuss your experience.”
The incidents come at a heightened time for pet owners in River North. In a separate case last month, a live current from a manhole in the neighborhood killed one dog and injured another.
Dr. Rachel Courville, a veterinarian with BLVD Vet Chicago, previously told Block Club Chicago that one of the best ways to prevent electrocution is by having dogs wear rubber booties. Other winter safety precautions include wiping pets’ paws after walks to remove any irritants from winter streets.
“I feel like they should have told people what was going on … or at the very least, covered [the metal plate]. I mean, there’s an Ace Hardware like, right down the street,” Johnson said.
The situation has caused all four dog owners to distrust building management, raising concerns about whether the electric current has been fixed and will remain repaired.
In a now-deleted Instagram post from last week, Wolf Point East advertised itself as a pet-friendly building.
“It almost felt like they were just spitting in our face because they were ignoring us and then posted this,” Howard said.
All four dog owners said the issue is serious enough for them to reconsider renewing their leases at Wolf Point East.
As of Monday evening, the dog owners said they were still waiting for concrete answers from building management.
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