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Darwin Awards
2002 Honorable Mentions
Email a Friend The stupidity displayed by the participants in the following tales stops short of the ultimate Darwin Awards sacrifice. Nevertheless, we salute the spirit and innovation of their misadventures. Next Prev Random

Wet'n'Dry Shop Vac
2002 Honorable Mention
Confirmed True by Darwin

(15 October 2002, Washington) Gasoline is a dangerous substance. You're apt to win a Darwin Award if you stick a road flare in a puddle of gas, check the fuel level in a gas can with a cigarette lighter, or set ants ablaze with it. Now, a new way to get in trouble with gasoline has been discovered!

Firefighters summoned to a Woodinville home arrived to find twenty-foot flames shooting out of two Chevy Astro vans. After quelling the gasoline-fed blaze with water, dry chemicals, and foam, they questioned the man responsible for the incident.

Turns out that our Honorable Mention winner decided to siphon gasoline with an electric wet'n'dry shop vac. Amazingly, he had managed to collect and transfer an entire bucketful of gasoline before an electrical spark ignited the fumes.

A safety spokesperson said, "This was an accident wafting to happen."

DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2008
Submitted by: Zak
Reference: King County Journal

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The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action

Hardback. 327 pages. Autographed.
$15
185 Stories! In the ongoing saga of Survival of the Fittest, meet the thief who steals electrical wires without shutting off the current! Marvel at the would-be pilot who suspends his lawnchair from helium balloons! Learn from the man who peers into a gas can using a cigarette lighter...!

This book also includes a History of the Darwin Awards, Darwin Haiku, and a dozen humorous discussions of the implications of evolution, including the origin of idiots, and the role of testosterone.

Autographed by Author!

 


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