|
True Life Stories ... that are
beyond belief?!!
Darwin
Awards are (by definition) granted posthumously. This
citation is bestowed upon (the remains of) that
individual, who through single-minded self-sacrifice,
has done the most to remove undesirable elements from
the human gene pool.
[San Jose
Mercury News] An unidentified man, using a shotgun like
a club to break a former girlfriend's windshield,
accidentally shot himself to death when the gun
discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.
[Hickory
Daily Record 12/21/92] Ken Charles Barger, 47,
accidentally shot himself to death in December in
Newton, N.C., when, awakening to the sound of a ringing
telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but
grabbed instead a Smith &Wesson;.38 Special, which
discharged when he drew it to his ear.
[Unknown, 25
March] A terrible diet and room with no ventilation are
being blamed for the death of a man who was killed by
his own gas. There was no mark on his body but autopsy
showed large amounts of methane gas in his system. His
diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage (and a
couple of other things). It was just the right
combination of foods. It appears that the man died in
his sleep from breathing from the poisonous cloud that
was hanging over his bed. Had he been outside or had his
windows been opened, it wouldn't have been fatal. But
the man was shut up in his near airtight bedroom. He was
". . . a big man with a huge capacity for creating [this
deadly gas]." Three of the rescuers got sick and one was
hospitalized.
[Reuters,
Mississauga, Ontario] Man slips, falls 23 stories to his
death. A man cleaning a bird feeder on his balcony of
his condominium apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped
and fell 23 stories to his death, police said Monday.
Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheeled chair Sunday
when the accident occurred, said Inspector D'Arcy Honer
of the Peel regional police. "It appears the chair moved
and he went over the balcony," Honer said. "It's one of
those freak accidents. No foul play is suspected."
[UPI,
Toronto] Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety
of windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed
through a pane with his shoulder and plunged 24 floors
to his death. A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39,
fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank
Tower early Friday evening as he was explaining the
strength of the building's windows to visiting law
students. Hoy previously had conducted demonstrations of
window strength according to police reports. Peter
Lauwers, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson,
told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one of the
best and brightest" members of the 200-man association.
[AP, Cairo,
Egypt, 31 Aug 1995 CAIRO, Egypt (AP)] Six people drowned
Monday while trying to rescue a chicken that had fallen
into a well in southern Egypt. An 18-year-old farmer was
the first to descend into the 60-foot well. He drowned,
apparently after an undercurrent in the water pulled him
down, police said. His sister and two brothers, none of
whom could swim well, went in one by one to help him,
but also drowned. Two elderly farmers then came to help,
but they apparently were pulled by the same
undercurrent. The bodies of the six were later pulled
out of the well in the village of Nazlat Imara, 240
miles south of Cairo. The chicken was also pulled out.
It survived.
James Burns,
34, of Alamo, Mich., was killed in March as he was
trying to repair what police described as a "farm-type
truck." Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a
highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could
ascertain the source of a troubling noise. Burns'
clothes caught on something, however, and the other man
found Burns "wrapped in the drive shaft."
[Kalamazoo
Gazette, 4-1-95] Same thing up here in MI. Seems some
poor fella thought it would be a good idea to "move" a
downed wire from his car. Newspaper reports it took a
FULL MINUTE of neighbors whacking away at him with a 2x4
to free their freshly fried former friend from the fatal
flashing.
Bowling
Green, Ohio, student Robert Ricketts, 19, had his head
bloodied when he was struck by a Conrail train. He told
police he was trying to see how close to the moving
train he could place his head without getting hit.
In Wesley
Chapel, Florida, Joseph Aaron, 20, was hit in the leg
with pieces of the bullet he fired at the exhaust pipe
of his car. When repairing the car, he needed to bore a
hole in the pipe. When he couldn't find a drill, he
tried to shoot a hole in it.
[Times of
London] A thief who sneaked into a hospital was scarred
for life when he tried to get a suntan. After evading
security staff at Odstock Hospital in Salisbury,
Wiltshire, and helping himself to doctor's paging
devices, the thief spotted a vertical sunbed. He walked
into the unit and removed his clothes for a 45-minute
tan. However, the high-voltage UV machine at the
hospital, which is renowned for its treatment of burns
victims, has a maximum dosage of 10seconds. After lying
on the bed for almost 300 times the recommended maximum
time, the man was covered in blisters. Hours later, when
the pain of the burns became unbearable, he went to
Southampton General Hospital, 20 miles away, in
Hampshire. Staff became suspicious because he was
wearing a doctor's coat. After tending his wounds they
called the police. Southampton police said: "This man
broke into Odstock and decided he fancied a quick
suntan. Doctors say he is going to be scarred for
life. |
