Darwin Awards
Pour ceux qui ne les connaissent pas encore, les Darwin Awards sont decernés chaque année pour recompenser les personnes qui ont le plus contribué à l'amélioration génétique de la race humaine en se tuant de la facon la plus stupide possible. Je les ai collectionnés entre 1995 et 2003 mais il existe aussi un site officiel des Darwin Awards:
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/
You all know about the Darwin Awards - It's an annual honor given to the person who did the gene-pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. I used to collect them between 1995 and 2003 but there is also an official Darwin Awards web site:
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1996 (French and English) 1997 (French and English) 1998 (in English) 1999 (in English) 2000 (in English) 1994 Allmost Darwin awards (in English) 2002 FBI Awards (Juillet 2002, en Français) 2002 Stella Awards (Juillet 2002, en Français)
1996 (French and English)
1997 (French and English)
1998 (in English)
1999 (in English)
2000 (in English)
1994 Allmost Darwin awards (in English)
2002 FBI Awards (Juillet 2002, en Français)
2002 Stella Awards (Juillet 2002, en Français)
1996
En Français / In English
La patrouille routiere d'Arizona a trouve des bouts de metal incrustes dans une falaise au-dessus d'une route, au niveau d'un virage. L'epave semblait resulter d'un accident d'avion, mais il s'est avere etre celle d'une voiture. Le modele de voiture n'etait pas identifiable directement. Le Labo a finalement reussi a determiner de quoi il s'agissait et ce qui s'etait passe. Il semble qu'un type ait reussi a se procurer on ne sait comment une "JATO" (Jet Assisted Take Off, une rocket) utilisee pour donner aux gros porteurs militaires une poussee supplementaire au moment du decollage. Il a conduit sa Chevrolet Impala dans le desert, a trouve une longue ligne droite et a attache la rocket a sa voiture. Les faits, tels qu'ils ont ete determines, sont que le conducteur de la Impala 1967 a pris de la vitesse et a allume la rocket a environ 3 miles (4.8km) du lieu de l'accident - ceci deduit grace au bitume fondu a cet endroit. La JATO, si utilisee correctement, aurait atteint sa poussee maximum au bout de 5 secondes, propulsant la Chevrolet a plus (bien plus) de 350 mph (560 kmh), et aurait continuee a pousser pendant 20 a 25 secondes. Dans le meilleur des cas, le conducteur devenu pilote a subit une acceleration de plusieurs G theoriquement resevee aux pilotes de F-18 en mode afterburner, ce qui l'a rendu relativement insignifiant pour la suite des evenements. Quoi qu'il en soit, la voiture est restee sur la route pendant environ 2.5 miles avant que le conducteur n'ecrase et fonde completement les freins, explosant les pneus et laissant d'epaisses traces de gommes sur la chaussee. La voiture a ensuite quitte le sol pendant 1.4 miles de plus avant de percuter la falaise a une hauteur de 125 pieds (38metres !!), laissant un cratere de 3 pieds (1 metre) de profondeur dans la roche. La plupart des reste du conducteur ne furent pas identifiable, mais des fragments d'os, de dents et de cheveux ont pu etre extrait du cratere et quelques bouts d'os et d'ongles ont ete retires de ce qui fut le volant.
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Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it. And this year's nominee is........
The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out what it was and what had happened. It seems that a guy had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off - actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra "push" for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO! The facts as best could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within five seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20-25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G forces usually reserved for dogfighting F- 14 jocks under full afterbumers, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater three feet deep in the rock.
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1997
* En septembre a Detroit, un homme de 41 ans est mort noye dans 50 c d'eau apres avoir passe la tete dans une bouche d'egout et s'etre bloque ...en cherchant ses cles de voiture...
* En octobre un agent de change de San Francisco, qui d'apres sa femme fait le vide total dans sa tete quand il court, se tue pendant son jogging en tombant dans un ravin de 60 metres.
* Buxton, NC: Jones, un resident de Woodbridge, Virginia, s'est tue a la plage quand le trou qu'il avait creuse pour s'asseoir s'est effondre et l'a enterre vivant. Les temoins affirment qu'il s'etait installe dans son trou avec sa chaise longue quand soudain ca s'est effondre. Il a fallu une heure aux sauveteurs pour le sortir du trou. Il etait mort a son arrivee a l'hopital.
* En fevrier, Santiago Alvarado, 24 ans s'est tue a Lompoc, Californie,en tombant la tete premiere du plafond d'un magasin de velo qu'il essayait de cambrioler. La mort est due a la lampe de poche qu'il tenait dans sa bouche (pour garder les mains libres) et qui est entree dans la base du crane en touchant par terre...
* Selon le rapport de Police de Dahlonega, Georgia, le cadet de Police Nick Berena, 20 ans, est mort, poignarde par son ami le cadet dePolice Jeffrey Hofman, 23 ans, qui voulait lui demontrer que le veste en Kevlar que Berena portait pouvait resister aux coups de couteaux...
* Sylvester Bridel, Jr, 26 ans est mort en fevrier a Selbyville, en gagnant son pari avec ses amis comme quoi il n'oserait pas mettre un revolver rempli de 4 balles dans sa bouche et tirer...
* A Elyria, Ohio, en essayant de nettoyer les toiles d'arraignes dans sa cave, Martin Eskins refusa d'utiliser le balais et preferra allumer une torche pour bruler les toiles, causant une incendie qui a ravage les premier et deuxieme etage de sa maison.
* Paul Stiller et sa femme sont hospitalises en septembre a Andover Township, NJ, blesses par un baton de dynamite qui a explose dans leur voiture: s'ennuyant a bord de leur voiture a deux heures du matin, ils ont voulu allumer un baton de dynamite et le jeter par la fenetre pour voir ce que ca faisait, mais apparemment n'ont pas remarque que les vitres etaient fermees quand ils ont lance le baton...
* Tacoma, WA - Kerry Bingham, et ses amis avaient passe la soiree a boire quand l'un d'entre eux dit qu'il connaissait quelqu'un qui avait saute en elastique du pont de Tacoma Narrows Bridge. La conversation s'anime et a 4:30 du matin, Kerry et ses amis se rendent sur les lieux pour renouveler l'experience. Arrives sur le pont, ils s'apercoivent qu'ils n'ont pas amene d'elastique pour le saut; ils decident alors d'utiliser un cable qu'ils ont trouve pres du pont. Ils attachent donc un bout du cable au pont et l'autre bout a la jambe de Kerry. Apres un saut de 12 metres, le cable s'est tendu arrachant le pied de Kerry a la cheville. Il surviva miraculeusement, sauve des eaux de la riviere par des pecheurs...
* Une femme rentre a la maison et trouve son mari de dos dans la cuisine tremblant, presqu'en transe avec un fil electrique a la main. Pour sauver son mari, elle attrape un bout de bois dans le jardin et le tape violemment a l'epaule pour l'eloigner du courant electrique. Ce faisant elle lui fait une double fracture au bras. Dommage, car en fait le mari etait en train d'ecouter de la musique sur son Walkman....
* Brementon, WA - Christopher Coulter et sa femme voulant pimenter leurs ebats ont eu l'idee de verser du beurre du cacahuetes sur les organes genitaux de Christopher et de laisser le chien Rudy les lecher. Malheureusement, Rudy perd son controle et commence a mordre les testicules et le penis de Christopher. Paniquee, Emily jette une bouteille de parfum qui se brise sur la tete du chien. Rudy surpris saute en arriere et du coup arrache le penis de Christopher. Les chirurgiens de l'hopital de Brementon ont mis huit heures pour coller les morceaux et declarent que Chris a eu beaucoup de chance que le parfum ait sterilise la plaie..
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You all know about the Darwin Awards - - It's an annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. The 1995 winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which topples over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it. In 1996 the winner was an Air Force Sergeant who attached a jet engine (JATO) unit to his car and crashed into a cliff several hundred feet above the road. And now, the 1997 winner:
Larry Waters of Los Angeles - - one of the few Darwin winners to survive his award-winning accomplishment. Larry's boyhood dream was to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. When he was finally discharged, he had to satisfy himself with watching jets fly over his backyard. One day, Larry had a bright idea. He decided to fly. He went to the local Army-Navy surplus store and purchased 45 weather balloons and several tanks of helium. The weather balloons, when fully inflated, would measure more that four feet across. Back home, Larry securely strapped the balloons to his sturdy lawn chair. He anchored the chair to the bumper of his Jeep and inflated the balloons with the helium. He climbed on for a test while it was still only a few feet above the ground. Satisfied it would work, Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-pack of Miller Lite, loaded his pellet gun figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to descend and went back to the floating lawn chair. He tied himself in along with his pellet gun and provisions. Larry's plan was to lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard after severing the anchor and in a few hours come back down. Things didn't quite work out that way. When he cut the cord anchoring the lawn chair to his Jeep, he didn't float lazily up to 30 or so feet. Instead he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon. He didn't level off at 30 feet, nor did he level off at 100 feet. After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at 11,000 feet. At that height he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble. So he stayed there, drifting, cold and frightened, for more than 14 hours. Then he really got in trouble. He found himself drifting into the primary approach corridor of Los Angeles International Airport. A United pilot first spotted Larry. He radioed the tower and described passing guy in a lawn chair with a gun. Radar confirmed the existence of an object floating 11,000 feet above the airport. LAX emergency procedures swung into full alert and a helicopter was dispatched to investigate. LAX is right on the ocean. Night was falling and the offshore breeze began to blow. It carried Larry out to sea with the helicopter in hot pursuit. Several miles out, the helicopter caught up with Larry. Once the crew determined that Larry was not dangerous, they attempted to close in for a rescue, but the draft from the blades would push Larry away whenever they neared. Finally, the helicopter ascended to a position several hundred feet above Larry and lowered a rescue line. Larry snagged the line and was hauled back to shore. The difficult maneuver was flawlessly executed by the helicopter crew. As soon as Larry was hauled to earth, he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD for violating LAX airspace. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reported dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked why he had done it. Larry stopped, turned and replied nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around." Let's hear for Larry Waters, the 1997 Darwin Award Winner.
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This year's Darwin Award winners are John Pernicky and his friend Sal Hawkins from the great state of Washington. John and Sal decided to attend a Metallica concert at the amphitheater in Gorge, Washington. Having no tickets, but 18 beers between them, they sat in the parking lot and finished the beer. At that point, they decided they could scale the 9 foot fence and sneak into the concert. The two friends pulled their pick-up over to the fence and the plan was for John, 100 pounds heavier than Sal, to hop over, and then assist his friend. Unfortunately, there was a 30 foot drop on the other side of the 9 foot fence. Having heaved himself over, John found himself crashing through a tree. His fall was abruptly halted by a large branch which snagged him by his shorts. Dangling from the tree with one arm broken, John looked down and saw a clump of bushes directly below. Figuring the bushes would break his fall, John removed a pocket knife and proceeded to cut away his shorts. When finally free from the tree, he crashed into a large clump of holly bushes. The sharp leaves scratched his entire body. Being without shorts, he was the unwilling victim of a holly branch which penetrated his rectal cavity. To make matters worse, his pocket knife fell with him and landed 3 inches into his left thigh. Seeing his friend in terrible pain, Sal decided to throw John a rope. However, weighing about 100 pounds less than his friend, Sal decided the best coarse of action would be to tie the rope to the pick-up truck. This is when things went from bad to worse. In his drunken state, Sal put the truck into the wrong gear, pressed on the gas and crashed through the fence, landing on and killing John. Sal was thrown from the truck, suffered massive internal injuries, and died on the scene. Police arrived to find the pick-up with its driver thrown 100 feet from the vehicle and, upon moving the truck, a half naked man with numerous scratches, a holly branch stuck up his rectum, a knife in his thigh, and a pair of shorts dangling from a tree branch 25 feet in the air. The Darwin Award is bestowed every year upon an individual(s) (or remains thereof), who, through single minded self sacrifice, has done the most to remove undesirable elements from the human gene pool. John and Sal posthumously received this year's award
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The NEW, undisputed Darwin Award winner for 1997 (the Darwin is awarded to the person who does the human gene pool the greatest favour by removing themselves from it in a new and ingenious way)
Japan Times-April 16, 1997
"The government must crack down on this disgusting craze of pumping", a spokesman for the Nakhon Ratchasima hospital told reporters. "If this perversion catches on, it will destroy the cream of Thailand's manhood." He was speaking after the remains of 13 year-old Charnchai Puanmuangpak had been rushed into the hospital's emergency room. "Most 'Pumpers' use a standard bicycle pump," he explained, "inserting the nozzle far up their rectum, giving themselves a rush of air, creating a momentary high. This act is a sin against God." Charnchai took it further still. He started using a two-cylinder foot pump, but even that wasn't exciting enough for him, and he boasted to friends that he was going to try the compressed air hose at a nearby gasoline station. They dared him to do it so, under cover of darkness, he snuck in. Not realizing how powerful the machine was, he inserted the tube deep into his rectum, and placed a coin in the slot. As a result, he died virtually instantly, but passersby are still in shock. One woman thought she was watching a twilight fireworks display, and started clapping. "We still haven't located all of him." say the police authorities."When that quantity of air interacted with the gas in his system, he nearly exploded. It was like an atom bomb went off or something." "Pumping is the devil's pastime, and we must all say no to Satan," Ratchasima concluded. "Inflate your tires by all means, but then hide your bicycle pump where it cannot tempt you." Let's hear it for Charnchai Puanmuangpak, the NEW 1997 undisputed Darwin Awards recipient!
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THE DARWIN AWARDS are given every year to bestow 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. Here are some current candidates:
[AP, Mammoth Lakes, CA] A San Anselmo man died yesterday when he hit a lift tower at the Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the slope on a foam pad, authorities said. Matthew David Hubal, 22, was pronounced dead at Centinela Mammoth Hospital. The accident occurred about 3 a.m., the Mono County Sheriff's Department said. Hubal and his friends apparently had hiked up a ski run called Stump Alley and undid some yellow foam protectors from the lift towers, said Lieutenant Mike Donnelly of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department. The pads are used to protect skiers who might hit the towers. The group apparently used the pads to slide down the ski slope and Hubal crashed into a tower. It has since been investigated that the tower he hit as the one with its pad removed.
[AP, St. Louis, MO] Robert Puelo, 32, was apparently being disorderly in a St. Louis market. When the clerk threatened to call police, Puelo grabbed a hot dog, shoved it in his mouth, and walked out without paying for it. Police found him unconscious in front of the store: paramedics removed the six-inch wiener from his throat, where it had choked him to death.
[UPI, Spain] To poacher Marino Malerba, who shot a stag standing above him on an overhanging rock -- and was killed instantly when it fell on him.
[Associated Press, Kincaid, W. VA] A man at a party popped a blasting cap into his mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion that blew off his lips, teeth and tongue, state police said Wednesday. Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during a party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D. Payne. "Another man had it in an aquarium, hooked to a battery, and was trying to explode it," Payne said. "It wouldn't go off and this guy said, "I'll show you how to set it off." "He put it in his mouth and bit down. It blew all his teeth off, his tongue and his lips," Payne said. Stromyer was listed in guarded condition Wednesday with extensive facial injuries, according to a spokesman at Charleston Area Medical Division. "I just can't imagine anyone doing something like that," Payne said.
[UPI, Portland, OR] Doctors at Portland's University Hospital said Wednesday an Oregon man shot through the skull by a hunting arrow is lucky to be alive, and will be released soon from the hospital. Tony Roberts, 25, lost his right eye last weekend during an initiation into a men's rafting club, Mountain Men Anonymous, in Grants Pass, Ore. A friend tried to shoot a beer can off his head, but the arrow entered Roberts' right eye. Doctors said had the arrow gone 1 millimeter to the left, a major blood vessel would have cut and Roberts would have died instantly. Neurosurgeon Dr. Johnny Delashaw at the University Hospital in Portland said the arrow went through 8 to 10 inches of brain, with the tip protruding at the rear of his skill, yet somehow managed to miss all major blood vessels. Delashaw also said had Robert tried to pull the arrow out on his own he surely would have killed himself. Roberts admitted afterwards he and his friends had been drinking that afternoon. Said Roberts, "I feel so dumb about this." No charges have been filed but the Josephine County district attorney's office said the initiation stunt is under investigation.
[AP, Arkansas] A woman named Linda went to Arkansas last week to visit her in-laws, and while there, went to a store. She parked next to a car with a woman sitting in it, her eyes closed and hands behind her head, apparently sleeping. When Linda came out a while later, she again saw the woman, her hands still behind her head but with her eyes open. The woman looked very strange, so Linda tapped on the window and said "Are you okay?" The woman answered "I've been shot in the head, and I am holding my brains in." Linda didn't know what to do; so she ran into the store where store officials called the paramedics. They had to break into the car because the door was locked. When they got in, they found that the woman had bread dough on the back of her head and in her hands. A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded, apparently from the heat in the car, making a loud explosion like that of a gunshot, and hit her in the head. When she reached back to find what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains. She passed out from fright at first, then attempted to hold her brains in!
[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.
[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 10 seconds. 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.
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1998
They have finally been released! For those not familiar with the Darwin Award - It's an annual honor given to the person who provided the universal human gene pool the biggest service by getting killed in the most extraordinarily stupid way. As always, competition this year has been keen. Some candidates appear to have trained their whole lives for this event!
DARWIN AWARD CANDIDATES
1. In September in Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.
2. In October, a 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who "totally zoned when he ran," according to his wife, accidentally jogged off a 200-foot-high cliff on his daily run.
3. Buxton, NC: A man died on a beach when an 8-foot-deep hole he had dug into the sand caved in as he sat inside it. Beachgoers said Daniel Jones, 21, dug the hole for fun, or protection from the wind, and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom Thursday afternoon when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on the beach, on the Outer Banks, used their hands and shovels, trying to claw their way to Jones, a resident of Woodbridge, VA, but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him while about 200 people looked on. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.
4. In February, Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, CA, as he fell face-first through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth (to keep his hands free) rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor.
5. According to police in Dahlonega, GA, ROTC cadet Nick Berrena, 20, was stabbed to death in January by fellow cadet Jeffrey Hoffman, 23, who was trying to prove that a knife could not penetrate the flakvest Berrena was wearing.
6. Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in February in Selbyville, Del., as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.
7. In February, according to police in Windsor, Ontario, Daniel Kolta, 27, and Randy Taylor, 33, died in a head-on collision, thus earning a tie in the game of chicken they were playing with their snowmobiles.
8. In September, a 7-year-old boy fell off a 100-foot-high bluff near Ozark, Ark, after he lost his grip swinging on a cross that marked the spot where another person had fallen to his death in 1990.
DARWIN AWARD HONORABLE MENTIONS
1. In Guthrie, Okla , in October, Jason Heck tried to kill a millipede with a shot from his 22-caliber rifle, but the bullet ricocheted off a rock near the hole and hit pal Antonio Martinez in the head, fracturing his skull.
2. In Elyria, Ohio, in October, Martyn Eskins, attempting to clean out cobwebs in his basement, declined to use a broom in favor of a propane torch and caused a fire that burned the first and second floors of his house.
3. Paul Stiller, 47, was hospitalized in Andover Township, NJ, in September, and his wife Bonnie was also injured, by a quarter-stick of dynamite that blew up in their car. While driving around at 2 AM, the bored couple lit the dynamite and tried to toss it out the window to see what would happen, but they apparently failed to notice that the window was closed.
4. Taking "Amateur Night" Too Far: In Betulia, Colombia, an annual festival in November includes five days of amateur bullfighting. This year, no bull was killed, but dozens of matadors were injured, including one gored in the head and one Bobbittized. Said one participant, "It's just one bull against [a town of] a thousand Morons."
AND THE WINNER: PADERBORN, GERMANY
Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt fed his constipated elephant Stefan 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally let fly - and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop! Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive-oil enemawhen the relieved beast unloaded on him like a dump truck full of mud. "The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him," said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern. "With no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents. ================================================================
1999
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Nov. 13) -- A 39-year-old Charlottesville Man died Thursday in a freak accident involving his washing machine. According topolice reports, Samuel Randolph Strickson was doing laundry when he tried to speed up the process. Strickson apparently tried to stuff approximately 50pounds of laundry into his washing machine by climbing on top of the washerand attempting to force the clothing into the basin. Strickson then apparentlyaccidentally kicked the washing machine's ON button. When the machine turnedon, Strickson lost his balance and both feet went down into the machine, wherethey got stuck.The machine started its cycle, and Strickson, unable to free himself, started thrashing around as the machine's agitator went into gear. Strickson's headbanged against a nearby shelf in the laundry room, knocking over a bottle ofbleach, which poured over Strickson's face, blinding him. Forensic reports sayStrickson apparently also swallowed some of the bleach. He then vomited, butwas still unable to free himself. Strickson's dog, then apparently came into the laundry room.At about the same time, according to police, a large box of baking soda fell from the shelf, startling the dog, who then urinated. Urine, like vinegar, is acidic, and the chemical reaction between the urine and the baking sodaresulted in "a small explosion," according to police reports. The dog,however, escaped unharmed. Strickson remained stuck in the washing machine, which eventually went into its high-speed spin cycle, spinning Stricksonaround at about 70 miles per hour, according to forensic experts. Strickson's head then smashed against a steel beam behind the washing machine, Immediatelykilling him. A neighbor heard the commotion and called 911, but Strickson was pronounced dead at the scene.
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2000
1. TACOMA, WA - Kerry Bingham, had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more heated and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30am. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. One end of the cable was secured around Bingham's leg and the other end was tied to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy river water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. "All I can say," said Bingham, "is that God was watching out for me on that night. There's just no other explanation for it." Bingham's foot was never located.
2. A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply, because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. This resulting explosion and fire burned his house down, killing both him and his sister.
3. A 34-year-old white male found dead in the basement of his home died of suffocation, according to police. He was approximately 6'2" tall and weighed 225 pounds. He was wearing a pleated skirt, white bra, black and white saddle shoes, and a woman's wig. It appeared that he was trying to create a schoolgirl's uniform look. He was also wearing a military gas mask that had the filter canister removed and a rubber hose attached in its place. The other end of the hose was connected to a one end of a hollow wooden tube approx. 12" long and 3" in diameter. The tube's other end was inserted into his rear end for reasons unknown, and was the cause of his suffocation. Police found the task of explaining the circumstances of his death to his family very awkward.
4. Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles.
5. A police officer in Ohio responded to a 911 call. She had no details before arriving, except that someone had reported that his father was not breathing. Upon arrival, the officer found the man face down on the couch, naked. When she rolled him over to check for a pulse and to start CPR, she noticed burn marks around his genitals. After the ambulance arrived and removed the man - who was declared dead on arrival at the hospital - the police made a closer inspection of the couch, and noticed that the man had made a hole between the cushions. Upon flipping the couch over, they discovered what caused his death. Apparently the man had a habit of putting his penis between the cushions, down into the hole and between two electrical sanders (with the sandpaper removed, for obvious reasons). According to the story, after his orgasm the discharge shorted out one of the sanders, electrocuting him.
6 A 27-year-old French woman lost control of her car on a highway near Marseilles and crashed into a tree, seriously injuring her passenger and killing herself. As a commonplace road accident, this would not have qualified for a Darwin nomination, were it not for the fact that the driver's attention had been distracted by her Tamagotchi key ring, which had started urgently beeping for food as she drove along. In an attempt to press the correct buttons to save the Tamagotchi's life, the woman lost her own.
7 A 22-year-old Reston, VA man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot railroad trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast-food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park, jumped and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby. "The length of the cord that he had assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and the ground", Carmichael said. Police say the apparent cause of death was "Major trauma".
8. A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a friend were playing a game of catch, using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend - no doubt, a future Darwin Awards candidate - was hospitalized.
9. Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building, extinguishing all potential sources of ignition lights, power, etc. After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked (you can see what's coming, can't you?). Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object, that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon operation of the lighter like object, the gas in the warehouse exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected of causing the blast had never been thought of as 'bright' by his peers.
Allmost Darwin Awards
Not really a Darwin award but 1994's MOST BIZARRE SUICIDE
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for Forensic Science, AAFS president Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this.
Ordinarily, Dr. Mills continued, a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and pellets went through the window striking Opus. When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B.
When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her - therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
There was an exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son, one Ronald Opus, had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten- story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth story window.
The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
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Not really Darwin Awards but they could have:
And You Thought YOU Were Having a Bad Day! Sometimes, it seems like some people are just plain *doomed*. If you don't believe it, consider these weird deaths and other mishaps:
* A fierce gust of wind blew 45-year-old Vittorio Luise's car into a river near Naples, Italy, in 1983. He managed to break a window, climb out and swim to shore -- where a tree blew over and killed him.
* Mike Stewart, 31, of Dallas was filming a movie in 1983 on the dangers of low-level bridges when the truck he was standing on passed under a low-level bridge -- killing him.
* Walter Hallas, a 26-year-old store clerk in Leeds, England, was so afraid of dentists that in 1979 he asked a fellow worker to try to cure his toothache by punching him in the jaw. The punch causedHallas to fall down, hitting his head, and he died of a fractured skull.
* George Schwartz, owner of a factory in Providence, R.I., narrowly escaped death when a 1983 blast flattened his factory except for one wall. After treatment for minor injuries, he returned to the scene to search for files. The remaining wall then collapsed on him, killing him.
* Depressed since he could not find a job, 42-year-old Romolo Ribolla sat in his kitchen near Pisa, Italy, with a gun in his hand threatening to kill himself in 1981. His wife pleaded for him not to do it, and after about an hour he burst into tears and threw the gun to the floor. It went off and killed his wife.
* In 1983, a Mrs. Carson of Lake Kushaqua, N.Y., was laid out in her coffin, presumed dead of heart disease. As mourners watched, she suddenly sat up. Her daughter dropped dead of fright.
* A man hit by a car in New York in 1977 got up uninjured, but lay back down in front of the car when a bystander told him to pretend he was hurt so he could collect insurance money. The car rolled forward and crushed him to death.
* Surprised while burgling a house in Antwerp, Belgium, a thief fled out the back door, clambered over a nine-foot wall, dropped down and found himself in the city prison.
* In 1976 a twenty-two-year-old Irishman, Bob Finnegan, was crossing the busy Falls Road in Belfast, when he was struck by a taxi and flung over its roof. The taxi drove away and, as Finnegan lay stunned in the road, another car ran into him, rolling him into the gutter. It too drove on. As a knot of gawkers gathered to examine the magnetic Irishman, a delivery van plowed through the crowd, leaving in its wake three injured bystanders and an even more battered Bob Finnegan.When a fourth vehicle came along, the crowd wisely scattered and only one person was hit-Bob Finnegan. In the space of two minutes Finnegan suffered a fractured skull, broken pelvis, broken leg, and other assorted injuries. Hospital officials said he would recover.
* While motorcycling through the Hungarian countryside, Cristo Falatti came up to a railway line just as the crossing gates were coming down. While he sat idling, he was joined by a farmer with a goat, which the farmer tethered to the crossing gate. A few moments later a horse and cart drew up behind Falatti, followed in short order by a man in a sports car. When the train roared through the crossing, the horse startled and bit Falatti on the arm. Not a man to be trifled with, Falatti responded by punching the horse in the head. In consequence the horse's owner jumped down from his cart and began scuffling with the motorcyclist. The horse, which was not up to this sort of excitement, backed away briskly, smashing the cart into the sports- car. At this, the sports-car driver leaped out of his car and joined the fray. The farmer came forward to try to pacify the three flailing men. As he did so, the crossing gates rose and his goat was strangled. At last report, the insurance companies were still trying to sort out the claims.
* Two West German motorists had an all-too-literal head-on collision in heavy fog near the small town of Guetersloh. Each was guiding his car at a snail's pace near the center of the road. At the moment of impact their heads were both out of the windows when they smacked together. Both men were hospitalized with severe head injuries.Their cars weren't scratched.
* In a classic case of one thing leading to another, seven men aged eighteen to twenty-nine received jail sentences of three to four years in Kingston-on-Thames, England, in 1979 after a fight that started when one of the men threw a french fry at another while they stood waiting for a train.
* Hitting on the novel idea that he could end his wife's incessant nagging by giving her a good scare, Hungarian Jake Fen built an elaborate harness to make it look as if he had hanged himself. When his wife came home and saw him she fainted. Hearing a disturbance a neighbor came over and, finding what she thought were two corpses, seized the opportunity to loot the place. As she was leaving the room, her arms laden, the outraged and suspended Mr. Fen kicked her stoutly in the backside. This so surprised the lady that she dropped dead of a heart attack. Happily, Mr. Fen was acquitted of manslaughter and he and his wife were reconciled.
* An unidentified English woman, according to the London Sunday Express was climbing into the bathtub one afternoon when she remembered she had left some muffins in the oven. Naked, she dashed downstairs and was removing the muffins when she heard a noise at the door. Thinking it was the baker, and knowing he would come in and leave a loaf of bread on the kitchen table if she didn't answer his knock, the woman darted into the broom cupboard. A few moments later she heard the back door open and, to her eternal mortification, the sound of footsteps coming toward the cupboard. It was the man from the gas company, come to read the meter. "Oh," stammered the woman,"I was expecting the baker." The gas man blinked, excused himself and departed.
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Top ten FBI awards (Juillet 2002)
Chaque année le FBI enquête sur plus de 36.000 meurtres ou affaires de coups et blessures volontaires ou non ayant entraîné la mort.
Chaque année également est publié le " Top 10 " des affaires jugées les plus " croustillantes ". Bon " amusement " ....... !
10. Alex MIJTUS, 36 ans, a été assassiné par son épouse au moyen d'un vibromasseur de 30 centimètres de long. Madame MIJTUS en avait assez des pratiques sexuelles bizarres de son époux et lors d'une " folle nuit d'amour " elle enfonça complètement le vibromasseur dans l'anus de son mari. Le mouvement rotatif du vibromasseur provoqua des lésions à plusieurs organes internes. Alex MIJTUS mourut quelques heures plus tard des suites d'une hémorragie interne.
9. Debby MILLS-NEWBROUGHTON, 99 ans, mourut alors qu'elle traversait la chaussée. La vieille dame allait avoir 100 ans le lendemain. Alors que sa fille l'emmenait, dans sa chaise roulante, à une fête organisée pour son anniversaire, elle fut heurtée par la camionnette du pâtissier qui venait livrer son gâteau d'anniversaire.
8. Peter STONE, 42 ans, a perdu la vie par la faute de sa fille Samantha âgée de 8 ans. La fillette avait été envoyée au lit sans manger. Trouvant la mesure par trop injuste, Samantha estima que son père n'avait pas non plus le droit de manger et versa une grande quantité de "mort aux rats" dans son café. Le père devait décéder après avoir avalé une bonne gorgée du breuvage. Le juge estima que Samantha n'était pas en âge de prévoir les conséquences de son acte et lui infligea une peine assortie d'un sursis pour la totalité. Un mois après un jugement contradictoire fut prononcé parce que la fillette avait essayé d'assassiner sa mère de la même façon.
7. Javier HALOS a été assassiné par son propriétaire à l'aide d'une lunette de WC. HALOS n'ayant plus payé son loyer depuis 8 ans, son propriétaire, Kirk WESTON, lui assena un coup mortel avec la lunette du WC quand il se rendit compte depuis quand son locataire ne l'avait plus payé.
6. Mummod FOLI, un jeune barman de 22 ans, a été abattu par un gangster pour avoir, accidentellement, débarrassé trop vite le verre de ce consommateur. Le gangster en était tellement irrité qu'il obligea le barman à avaler 27 litres de Coca-Cola, ce qui lui fut évidemment fatal.
5. Helena SIMMS, épouse du célèbre spécialiste en sciences nucléaires Harold SIMMS, a été assassinée par son mari quand celui-ci découvrit qu'elle avait une liaison amoureuse avec leur voisin. Harold recouvrit les tubes d'ombre à paupières de son épouse avec une solution à base d'uranium hautement radioactive. Elle mourut 3 mois plus tard. Malgré le fait qu'Helena SIMMS présentait de multiples symptômes physiques dont une perte de poids, perte des cheveux et même d'un lobe d'oreille, elle n'alla jamais consulter un médecin.
4.Le Sergent John Joe WINTER assassina son épouse infidèle en bourrant son véhicule de TNT (Trinitrotoluène). Les 750 kilos d'explosifs furent mis à feu à distance par l'infortuné mari. L'explosion fut si forte qu'elle fut perçue à 15 kilomètres à la ronde. La voiture de la victime fut totalement pulvérisée et on ne retrouva pas la moindre trace ni du véhicule ni du corps. Par contre, un cratère de 55 mètres de profondeur sur 500 mètres de large s'était formé à l'endroit de l'explosion.
3. Michael LEWIS décida d'assassiner son partenaire homosexuel après une dispute. Il drogua son ami Tony BERRY et lui mit sur les épaules un grand panneau publicitaire blanc. D'un côté du panneau était inscrit le texte "Death to all Niggers!" et de l'autre côté " God loves the KKK ". Lewis conduisit son ami dans les faubourgs de New York, à Harlem, et l'y abandonna. Deux minutes plus tard, Tony BERRY avait perdu la vie.
2. Mary DRIDELY, Joseph COLES et Haven GILLIES moururent alors qu'ils passaient devant un hôtel à New York. Ils furent tués par David SMEE (7ans) et sa jeune soeur âgée de 6 ans. Les deux enfants étaient restés seuls sans surveillance des parents depuis plusieurs heures dans la chambre d'hôtel située au 27ième étage de l'immeuble. Ils s'ennuyaient et décidèrent d'essayer d'écraser " les petites fourmis qu'ils voyaient circuler en bas ". Les enfants commencèrent à jeter des fruits mais s'en prirent ensuite à différents objets de mobilier dont des chaises et même des postes de télévision.
1. Et celle jugée la meilleure ?!? Gail QUEENS, 23 ans, a été assassinée par son petit ami, Mathew KELLAWAY, parce qu'elle refusait de faire l'amour. KELLAWAY était employé comme soigneur dans un zoo et avait convié sa petite amie à venir assister au repas des lions. Mathew KELLAWAY amena son amie dans un local vitré d'où, lui avait-il garanti, elle aurait la meilleure vue sur le repas des fauves. Tout à coup, la jeune fille aperçut des gens de l'autre côté de la vitre. Elle frappa le verre en leur criant qu'ils se trouvaient du mauvais côté de celle-ci. Quand elle réalisa que c'était elle-même qui se trouvait du mauvais côté, trois lions affamés furent lâchés dans la pièce. Gail décéda deux jours plus tard dans un hôpital des suites de ses nombreuses blessures. =============
Apres les Darwin Awards, voici les Stella Awards, aussi droles et aussi farfelus (legendes urbaines? Juillet 2002):
En 1994, un jury du Nouveau-Mexique accorda 2,9 millions $ de dommage et intérêts a Stella Liebeck, 81 ans, souffrant de brulures aux troisième degré sur les jambes, le sexe et les fesses apres s'être renversée une tasse de café McDonald sur elle.
Ce cas inspira un "Prix Stella" annuel récompensant les procès US les plus délirants. Les cas suivants sont de sérieux candidats pour le prix, chacun versant dans le ridicule achevé, mais, dans la tradition américaine, avec un bon avocat, on peut gagner n'importe quoi.
1. Janvier 2000. Un jury populaire du Texas accorda 780.000 $ à Kathleen Robertson pour s'être foulée la cheville en trébuchant sur un enfant en bas age courant entre les rayons d'un supermarché. Les propriétaires du magasin furent considérablement surpris par le verdict, considérant que le jeune trouble-fête était le fils de Mme Robertson.
2. Juin 1998. Carl Truman, 19 ans, de Los Angeles, gagna 74.000 $ plus frais médicaux lorsque son voisin roula sur sa main avec sa Honda Accord. Mr Truman n'avait apparemment pas remarqué la présence de son voisin au volant alors qu'il lui volait ses enjoliveurs.
3. Octobre 1998. Terrence Dickson, Pennsylvanie, quittait la maison qu'il venait de cambrioler en passant par le garage. Incapable de ressortir, en raison du malfonctionnement de la commande automatique de la porte du garage, il ne put réintégrer la maison, le porte reliant la maison au garage s'étant fermée à clé lorsqu'il l'avait claquée. Les occupants de la maison étaient en vacances. Mr Dickson se retrouva enfermé dans le garage pendant 8 jours. Il survécu grace à un casier de Pepsi et un grand sac de nourriture pour chien déshydratée. Il poursuivit les propriétaires de la maison en justice, clamant la torture morale engendrée par la situation. Le jury lui octroya un demi million de dollars.
4. Octobre 1999. Jerry Williams, Arkansas, gagna 14.500 $ plus frais médicaux après avoir été mordu par le chien de son voisin. Le chien était enchainé a la cloture intérieure du jardin. Le montant accordé a Mr Williams fut moins élevé que prévue car le jury estima que le chien avait peut-être été un rien provoqué par Mr Williams qui lui tirait dessus au fusil a plombs.
5. Mai 2000. Un restaurant de Philadelphia fut contraint de verser 113.500 $ a Amber Carson après qu'elle se soit cassée le coccyx en glissant sur du soda. Le soda était sur le sol parce que Mlle Carson l'avait envoyé à la tête de son petit ami 30 secondes plus tôt au cours d'une dispute.
6. Décembre 1997. Kara Walton, Delaware, gagna son procès contre une boite de nuit d'une ville voisine lorsqu'elle les poursuivit car étant tombée par terre depuis la fenêtre des toilettes elle s'était cassée 2 dents. Ceci étant arrivé alors que Mlle Walton essayait de s'esquiver par la fenêtre pour éviter de payer 3,50 $ de boisson. Le jury lui octroya 12.000 $ plus les frais de dentiste.
Et le gagnant est:
Merv Grazinski, d'Oklahoma City. En novembre 2000, Mr Grazinski acheta un motor home Winnebago flambant neuf de 10 mètres de long. Lors de son retour chez lui, s'étant engagé sur l'autoroute, il lanca le véhicule à 110 km/h puis quitta le siège du conducteur pour se préparer un café à l'arrière. Evidemment, le motor home quitta la route et s'ecrasa plus loin après une série de tonneaux. Mr Grazinski poursuivit Winnebago pour ne l'avoir pas prévenu, via le guide de l'utilisateur, qu'il ne pouvait pas faire ca. Il gagna 1.750.000 $ plus un nouveau motor home Winnebago fit en plus changer son guide d'utilisation au cas ou d'autres parfaits crétins acheteraient leurs véhicules.