I dont understand this at all, and I have years of electrical
experience.

Last night I was doing some outdoor work after dark and I got out a
trouble light. Everything was going fine until the light went
out.When I grabbed it, the light came back on. OK, I figured the bulb
was loose and attempted to tighten it. It seemed tight so I just hung
it back where it was and started doing my work again. As soon as I
started working again, the damn light went out again. I picked it up,
and it came back on. I jiggled the switch a few times and the light
remained on. I hung it up and started my work again. Sure enough,
the light went out. This happened several more times, and I was
getting quite ****ed by then. I finally changed the bulb thinking the
bulb was defective. I hung it back up and went back to work. You
guessed it, the light went out. This time it stayed off, and I noticed
that another light on that same circuit was also off. I checked the
breaker and it was on. I then discovered that the GFI had tripped. I
reset this GFI and went back to my work. Sure enough, the light went
off, and once again the GFI tripped. By this time I was really angry,
and I plugged the light into a non-gfi outlet. The light was working
for a few minutes when all of a sudden it went off again. When I
grabbed it, I heard that loud hum which indicates a direct short, and
the breaker tripped. I unplugged the cord and threw that trouble light
into the garbage, and got another one. That one worked fine, and I
finiahed my work. (I had not turned the breaker back on, and I used a
different outlet on another breaker.).

When I finished my work, I took that defective light out of the trash
and brought it in the house. I completely disassembled it, and found
no broken or disconnected wires, no burn marks to indicate a short.
I put it back together and tried it, and it worked fine. Even with
the same bulb.

Why did it trip the breaker? There are no loose or broken wires,
nothing touching, and no burn marks to indicate a short. I also
looked at the outlets and everything else that could have been the
cause, and never found anything wrong.

OK, this cord is haunted, I thought......

Well, if you thing all of this is weird, it was the next day when I
walked into the shed in the morning and found the ceiling light on.
This light is on the same breaker that had blown, and I NEVER TURNED
IT BACK ON. I live alone, and no one else had been here. THere was
not even one of my cats in that shed. Yes, the breaker turned itself
back on....... I am not joking about this, the breaker was back on and
the ceiling light was on.

I dont get it. This makes no sense whatsoever. I have had no further
problems with that circuit or with that trouble light., and I even
re-created the whole thing by placing the light into the same outlet,
with the same bulb and everything works fine.

W T F ?????

Mark