"Real stupidly, I stood up on the concrete lid," Tim Osborne said in a phone interview Tuesday evening.

"Turns out it had deteriorated quite a bit, and I remember thinking as I climbed on, ‘I hope this holds me.’ "

At about 8 a.m., Mr. O, 42, stood on top of the well with a gas-powered weed trimmer, planning to cut the thick grass encircling the well casing. But the lid collapsed under his weight, plunging the alarm company repairman into the cold water below.

The well is about eight metres deep with about three metres of water in it, and Mr. Osborne hit bottom before bobbing back up.

His wife Cara and adult daughters Kayleigh and Chelsea were all gone and wouldn’t be back until evening.

Rather than sit in the chilling water and risk pneumonia or hypothermia, Mr. Osborne propped his back against one side of the well, his feet against the other, and wedged himself above the water. He tried to shimmy up a few times but after repeatedly slipping back down, he decided to conserve his strength. He figured he might be there until his family returned at suppertime.

"I decided to prop myself in there and just keep hollering," Mr. Osborne said. "My weed trimmer was still going (on the ground above) so I had to holler above that."

Later, Mr. Osborne learned neighbours had heard him not long after he fell in. The location of the well behind his house, coupled with the thick weeds and roar of the trimmer, made him difficult to find.

Three hours after he fell, a half-dozen neighbours finally found him and used a ladder to get him out.

"I was embarrassed, thankful, cold and wet," Mr. Osborne said. "I’m just so thankful those guys found me. I don’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t."

Mr. Osborne said his back is quite sore and he’s having trouble walking. His elbows and hands are scraped and his feet are cut, one quite deeply.

He wore out the bottom of his socks trying to manoeuvre against the concrete wall of the well. He had taken his sneakers off once he fell in because the soles were too slippery.

Cara Osborne said the family just recently moved to West Chezzetcook from Dartmouth. She said she’s impressed by the tight-knit community. Since her husband’s mishap, neighbours have been dropping by to check on him.

"Our neighbours really came through for us," she said. "They almost put together a little search and rescue team and walked around the property trying to find where the calling was coming from."

While hovering over the cold water, Mr. Osborne said his mind kept turning back to a recent news story he’d seen about a Canadian soldier who died in a well in Afghanistan.

On June 7, Capt. Jonathan Snyder, a member of 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, fell into a deep unmarked well while on night patrol west of Kandahar city. Officials say he likely drowned.

"A lot goes through your head," Mr. Osborne said. "I just kept thinking about that young soldier."

Submitted on 06/25/2008

Submitted by: Colin George
Reference: www.thechronicleherald.ca June 25, 2008

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
I'm keeping this because of the detailed narrative (unusual for news reporting) and because he KNEW the lid might be weak. I suppose he could have tested it with something other than his own weight, or else avoided it altogether. Yet I detect that he had within him a secret, driving urge to stand on the lid! I guess he listened to the little demon instead of the angel of reason!

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
This guy is incredibly lucky that his neighbors were willing to search for three hours for him. Thanks, Colin!

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