Fun_People Archive
11 Feb
A few embarrassing accidents...

Date: Fri, 11 Feb 94 23:02:11 PST
To: Fun_People
Subject: A few embarrassing accidents...

 From: vangogh.CS.Berkeley.EDU!bostic (Keith Bostic)
 From: WEIRDNUZ.310 (News of the Weird, January 13, 1994)
 by Chuck Shepherd

* In October, a young couple had to be treated for hypothermia at a
Gernsheim, Germany, clinic after the parked car in which they were
having sex rolled down a boat ramp into the Rhine River.  Another man,
who owned the car, was cited by authorities for the water pollution
caused by leaking gasoline. [Edmonton Journal, 10-23-93]

* In November, a man whose name was withheld by reporters was rescued
by firefighters after spending the night in the pit of an outhouse at
a boat landing near Eugene, Ore.  The man claimed that he had been high
after sniffing glue, had heard someone calling for help from the pit,
had fallen in while looking for him, and could not get back out. [Eugene
Register-Guard, 11- 4-93]

* In October, gun expert Stephen Barlow, testifying for the prosecution
against a man charged with murder in Salt Lake City, held the murder
weapon in his hand and told the jury that it could not possibly have
discharged by accidental jarring, as the defendant had claimed.  To
demonstrate, he placed a pencil in the barrel, pointed it at the
ceiling, and jarred the handle.  The gun fired the pencil.  In two
subsequent demonstrations, the gun again fired pencils.  "Oh, I'm
sorry," Barlow told the prosecutor.  The defendant was allowed to plead
guilty to manslaughter instead of murder. [Salt Lake Tribune, 10-7-93]

* In August, a Walnut Creek, Calif., woman unidentified by reporters,
caused a three-hour search involving police officers from two towns, a
search and rescue team (using hastily-printed photo posters), Explorer
Scouts, and several bloodhounds when she reported her 3-year-old
daughter missing from the family car during a round of errands.  Upon
returning home, the woman found the girl and realized that she had not
taken her on the errands. [[Oceanside Blade-Citizen-AP, Aug93]]

* In December, Bowling Green, Ohio, firefighters, responding to a blaze
on Wintergarden Road, discovered that they could not connect to the
nearest hydrant because a 900-foot hose had fallen off their truck en
route to the scene.  Fortunately, firefighters from nearby Weston had
arrived with the proper hose.  Said Chief Joe Burns, "We're going to
have to take a look at maybe a better way to keep it up there [on the
truck]." [Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune, Dec93]

* In April, when Baltimore's old Vermont Federal bank building was being
renovated for the new Harbor Bank, construction workers accidentally
locked the safe, which had gathered dust for six years but which Harbor
planned to use, and discovered that no one knew the combination.  Rather
than pay a locksmith an estimated $10,000, or ask an imprisoned
safecracker to try his hand, the building owner placed a classified ad
in the Baltimore Sun asking to hear from anyone "familiar with" the
combination.  A former Vermont Federal employee came by and opened the
safe. [Baltimore Sun, 4-19-93]

* In December, the chairman of a new state agency, the Texas Natural
Resources Conservation Commission, admitted that the agency had
forgotten to include a request in its 1994 budget for rent for its
offices.  To cover the $6 million expense, the chairman said some
pollution prevention programs would have to be delayed.  [San Antonio
Express-News-AP, 12-10-93]


Copyright 1994, Universal Press Syndicate.  All rights reserved.
Released for the personal use of readers.  No commercial use may be
made of the material or of the name News of the Weird.

© 1994 Peter Langston