This took place on a university campus with student housing. The housing consisted of several multi-floor houses each holding 5-6 "cell" apartments, i.e. each inhabitant would have a small room for himself and then there would be a common bathroom & kitchen for 2 to 8 people. I used to live about 150 metres from the spot, and I'd regularly use a route passing this particular house when going to the local minimart to do some shopping. One day the bicycle shelter of one of the houses looked kinda wrecked. I asked my friend about it and he knew the reason. The previous weekend a guy living in the top floor had come back home after a nice night out. At the house door he had noticed he had forgotten the keys in. It was autumn and the nights were pretty cool in Northern Finland at that time so he had a problem. No worries, he remembered leaving his window open to freshen up his room so he decided to get in through that open window. He found the ladder leading up to the roof and up he went. He located the right spot just above his window, got a good grip of the roof edge, swung himself over the edge and proceeded to swing himself in and right to the bed to sleep it off. This is when the real problems started. The window was open, yeah, but it is not so easy to do the trick he was trying, at least if you are a little bit intoxicated. After hanging and trying for a while, he didn't have other options but let go. So he fell, hitting the previously mentioned bicycle shelter, felling through its roof and breaking it. Miraculously enough, the only trauma he got was some fractured wrist bones. After a nine-floor fell (well, it's ten if you count the basement) this is an exceptionally good performance. Now, our hero is back in square one: it's cold and he is still locked out. He then decided to break the door window and break in the house (maybe this is what I'd personally have tried first). By doing this he got some bleeding woungs in his hand. The cleaning lady found him in the morning and called the police and ambulance. The best part, in my humble opinion, was that the student housing company sent him a hefty bill for the broken bicycle shelter roof and the door window. No charges were pressed (well, nothing criminal happened except some criminally stupid actions but they don't count in court) and nobody died, they are the reasons why press probably was not aware of what had happened. During these years I have personally met one person who knew anout this, he could also mention the guy's name and fill in some other details I didn't know at the time (the bill). I was also told that the hero of the story moved somewhere else pretty soon after this (probably the housing company declared him as persona non grata :-)

There were also some other funny accidents around those houses in those times. Once a guy was cleaning some engine (motorcycle, car or moped, cannot remember) parts in his room - with gasoline. Result: a massive explosion and a part of the wall almost fell out when the fumes caught fire and exploded. This happened in my neighbouring house during my visit to my folks in another town and there was some media coverage about this as they first thought the guy was building a bomb.

Submitted on 07/31/2006

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: Sorry, none.

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Neutral: Personal Account
It isn't quite an urban legend, nor is it a first hand personal account, but I found it worth a chuckle. I will keep it nominally as a third-hand PA!

Fitzroy said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Yeah, the story is much less direct than a typical Personal Account, but it is amusing enough that I do not want to dismiss it either. I wonder how others feel about it.

Jorge said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account

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