Charles Darwin's Darwin Awards 
HOME
Darwin Awards
At-Risk Survivors
Slush Pile
2008 February Slush
(DA)Chalk one up for the dog.
(?)Seatbelt subterfuge kills driver
(?)Mamba kills Man
(Hmmm)Surfing the wrong wave
(DA)A Breathtaking View
(DA)Slip Sliding Away
(HM)Mexican Divorce
DA:Dynamite Defroster
(DA)Stabbing suspect dies in car crash
Fatal Ski Slope Prank
(?)Die Hard
(DA)Chemistry Went Over Her Head
(>)Living the High Life (On a Budget)
(DA)On the Piste
(?)Darwin in heavy traffic
(?)Winched up
(No)Swimming with the fish (bits)
Man died after driving down boat ra
Monk killed by own runaway lawnmowe
Up, Up, and Away!
(DA)Hare today, gone tomorrow
Top of the train
Killer locomotive
A good thought gone bad
(HM)Shock Horror
Inspiration + Youth + Explosives =
Brain Evacuation
Manhole kills man, Dove in for Cana
Bridges are lower than they appear
no diving please
Roping a Bobcat
Mattress Race
Just Say No
Man has friend shoot him to get off
Old shells never die
Wash those genes away
BASE jumper succumbs to stupidity
A Mattress of Life and Death....
(DA)4 Die In Dirtbike Collision
boat welding
Trail Blazing Gaffe
It only works in the movies
feeling tyred - near miss
Tram drags man with him
Tree felling made easy
Community service for teen who burn
If at first you don't succeed
Man dies trying to beat train in Sa
The $500 Bullet
Please Take This Outside
Trailer burns when woman uses gas t
Death by iPod?
BBQ Whippits
Two men burned in backyard blast
Sledding Accident
The Widow Maker
Redneck Bee Exterminator
Miner nearly crushes himself
Too Close For Comfort
A fool and his bike
Drain Surfing
arrange your own hit
A tough act to swallow for student
Grocery Bang!
Drove 2.5 miles on the wrong way
2 teens hurt by explosion while dri
Departing parted
I'm dying for a drink
Smoking related near miss
Smoky bar triggered fatal asthma at
Man's death linked to cotton swab u
putting your foot in it
Older Slush 
 
~ Random Story ~
Email Alert!
Gift Shop
Rules  Search
Contact Darwin
Submit a Story
Philosophy Forum
Home

  

Darwin Awards
2008 Slush Pile

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

Shock Horror

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Accepted into the Archive.
ORIGINAL SUBMISSION:

--> Tue Feb 12, 9:39 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Police in central England are hunting for a badly scorched would-be copper power cable thief after finding a hacksaw embedded in an 11,000 volt power cable on Saturday night.

The thief, who also left a lit blow torch at the scene, is expected to be badly charred, spiky haired and not exactly the brightest bulb in the socket.

"The sheer stupidity of cutting through power cables should be glaringly obvious to everyone," said Phil Wilson, customer operations manager with local power company Central Networks.

"At the very least putting the hacksaw through the cable would have created an almighty bang and the line would have burned for quite a few seconds, showering them with molten copper... We can only assume they left in a great hurry or they were injured and were dragged away by an accomplice."

But searches of local hospitals have so far not found the culprit, a spokeswoman for Derbyshire Police said on Tuesday.

"Maybe they had a lucky escape," she said. "We don't have any leads yet."

Nearly 800 customers in the village of Creswell were cut off when the wannabe copper thief sawed into their power supply on Saturday night, but Central Networks got the lights back on within a few hours.

Copper prices have more than doubled in the last four years as China has gobbled up huge quantities of it, sparking a wave of copper thefts across the globe from South Africa and the United States to Italy and Britain.

Thieves targeting power lines and electricity substations have already led to two fatalities in Britain and many serious injuries, while leaving thousands without power.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren, editing by Paul Casciato)

Submitted on 02/12/2008

Submitted by: Izzy Ochoa
Reference: Reuters (London) 2-12-2008

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

Awful? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Great?
Hate it! Love it!
>> Moderator Scores <<

Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
While death by copper theft is exceedingly common these days, I really like this write up! It is not usual to see such a sense of humor over a crime like this in a Reuters story. I give it a nod and say let's pass it on. Izzy, thanks, and if you see where these brilliant examples of humanity have expired (burnt out?), let us know.


Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
I agree entirely with Chip on this one. Although these stories are exceedingly common this one stands out thanks to an unusual sense of humor displayed by Reuters. Thanks, Izzy! Here's a link to the actual article: http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1283190120080212


The Darwin Awards Gift Shop

$16 Smoking Crater T-Shirt / Black
Heavy 100% cotton, black Hanes Beefy-T with an inadvisable cigarette break on the front... a smoking crater on the back! Click on the image for a full view. Based on true stories. Errata: TNT will not explode in the presence of a lit cigarette. The man was actually sitting on a crate of gelignite.
Buy the Smoking Crater T-Shirt

 

 

Slush Pile
Slush Pile Rejects


Advanced Search

HomeRulesFAQsAwardsSlushSite Map
DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend