First off, you and your "gas company service guy" are idiots !!!

Telling someone to grab any kind of hammer and whack a gas valve
is not only idiotic, but downright criminal. You want to help him
blow up his house ? the fact that the valve had a malfunction is
reason enough to not dick with it, and just replace it with a new
one. you want a ****ing half ass repair job or one that's done
right ????

I agree with that. Well, maybe a gentle tapping to nudge away any dirt
that came in with the gas. If the problem totally goes away then fine but
really, this is the most critical component and if there's even the
slightest chance that it will get stuck open it has to go, no question
about it. Lives are on the line.

Secondly, if you had an "electrical short", you better hope a
fuse opened up somewhere.

Dunno about that. There isn't necessarily a fuse on the low voltage side
and a short there isn't necessarily going to trip or blow anything. But
it's also possible the he didn't really mean short but rather an
intermittent connection.