Behind the bars of a ventilation shaft, he saw a pair of shoes and reallised that it had to be a dead person, so he called the police.

The dead person was a man who had been missing since july 29. The same night as he was last seen, a strange break in occured in the retirement home; a window was smashed, computers and valuable things were packed in boxes but nothing had disappeared.

Most likely, the burgler became afraid when the alarm was set of, so he figured out that the best place to hide was a ventilation shaft. He removed the grid from the outer wall, crawled into the 0.3 x 0.6 m (1 x 2 ft) wide shaft, but too late, he discovered that it was turning downwards. He was stuck up-side-down with no possibility to move, and the building wasn't in use anymore so nobody could hear him if he was screaming.

Nobody knows for how many days he was alive, but the temperature in the north of Sweden during July is neither high enough to make you dehydrated very fast, nor cold enough to freeze you to death quickly. An attendant passed by shortly after the break in and hung up the bars in front of the ventilation shaft again, not reflecting over how or why it was removed. Maybe the trapped man had a last chance to call for help, but was too afraid or stupid, maybe he was already deceased. No matter wahat, he certainly experienced a long and painful death.

Submitted on 09/21/2006

Submitted by: Albert Ericsson
Reference: Östersundsposten, Sept. 19-21

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
Thanks, Albert, this one was rather graphic and chilling! To die like that must be a horrible experience. Usually, we toss stories about crooks dying while fleeing the law or committing a crime, but there WAS no law to flee from in this case! There's something ironically comical in this one, so I will nominally give it a neutral DA. We'll see what my fellow mods think!

Sheryl said:
Maybe Toss: Other
Thanks for the story, Albert. I won't ask why valuable equipment was still in a defunct retirement home. This one's really "black humour" and I'm really not a fan of "black humour". Considering the number of crooks stuck in ventilation shafts we've had over the years, I'll go the other way and toss it. Another Moderator, please.

Fitzroy said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
If there was a divine plan to all this, I'd think perhaps the sentence for that stupidity was a little too stiff. I believe this does have Darwin Award potential, but I also share the reservation that the tortorous demise is hard to smile at. Still, often the greatness of a tale is in the telling of it, so I'd like to give Darwin the chance to work her magic on this one.

Jorge said:
Neutral: Other

Graham said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention
Regardless of the man's motives, getting shafted in Sweden was no fun and a horrible way to die, especially inverted. This is not so much a case of stupidity, but desperation. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

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