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A Shot of 87 Octane and a Smoke
NC man mistakes gas for drink, caus
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Pay the Water Bill ... It's Safer
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Darwin Awards
2012 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Pay the Water Bill ... It's Safer

2012 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

I was talking Darwin Awards with a Bus Driver here in Columbus Ohio late last week. I picked up on a personal account from her while she was driving the Line 8 early in the AM about 2 years ago.

I've looked for the story by Googling "man dies water theft" etc. but can't seem to locate it. I'll try the area news stations as I'm sure they carried it.

Well, on a very stormy morning in summer, just over 2 years ago, our friendly bus driver for COTA here in Columbus was hopelessly behind schedule around 5:00AM. She could see several police cars and emergency vehicles due to some accident but could not see any wrecked cars.

Turns out, the reason was twist on the usual copper crooks we have in Ohio meeting an untimely fate. This time, it was someone who had his water turned off getting creative and losing to Mother Nature.

His water was shut off by the City of Columbus, presumably for non-payment. His idea to get it back on was to use a monkey wrench under cover of darkness by accessing the valve.

He unfortunately tried this during a massive thunderstorm. Well, holding onto a monkey wrench very solidly connected to a copper line many feet underground ... this was one Mother Nature could not pass up.

Chalk up one for Mother Nature chlorinating the gene pool. The man in question was found fried to a crisp from a lighting strike with the monkey wrench in hand, quite solidly fused onto the copper water line.

Submitted on 02/13/2012

Submitted by: Mike Durthaler
Reference: None but looking ... Personal Account

Copyright © 2012 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: No Self-Selection
Thanks for an amusing story, Mike, but lighting strikes really can't be anticipated so this is really just a freak accident and not the result of any direct stupidity on the victims part.


Candi said:
Definitely Toss: No Self-Selection
What Bruce said, but dang! So close!


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