2003 Darwin Awards

[JeeberD]

Not sure if these are genuine or not, but they're frickin' funny..
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DARWIN AWARDS FOR 2003


For those of you not familiar with the Darwin Awards, they are awarded
annually for the most extreme act of (usually terminal) stupidity.


First Place - The 2003 Darwin Award Winner.



When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during
a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would be robber James Elliot did
something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and
tried the trigger again. This time it worked.



And now, the honorable mentions:


The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine
and, after a little hopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance
company. The company, suspecting negligence, sent out one of its men to
have a look for himself. He tried the machine out and lost a finger. The
chef's claim was approved.



A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a
blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken
the space. Understandably, he shot her.




After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver
found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from
Harare to Beltway had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff
that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. . .

. . . The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.




An American teenager was in the hospital yesterday recovering from serious
head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received
the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how
close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.




A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and
asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a
gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly
provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer? $15. (If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, was a crime committed?)




Seems this Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that
he'd just throw a cinderblock through a liquor store window, grab some booze,
and run. So he lifted the cinderblock and heaved it over his head at the
window. The cinderblock bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the
head, knocking him unconscious. Seems the liquor store window was made of
Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.



As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed
her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to
the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there
or a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."




The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger
King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5:00 a.m., flashed a gun, and demanded
cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash
register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk
aid they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.



Kentucky: Two men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running a
chain from the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of
pulling the front panel off the machine, though, they pulled the bumper
off their truck. Scared, they left the scene and drove home. With the chain
still attached to the machine. With their bumper still attached to the
chain. With their vehicle's license plate still attached to the bumper.
They were quickly arrested.




HERE'S A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER!


When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a
Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at
the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near
spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to
steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage
tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges,
saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

[Draft Dodger]

the gas siphon thing was debunked by Snopes

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Seems this Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that
he'd just throw a cinderblock through a liquor store window, grab some booze,
and run. So he lifted the cinderblock and heaved it over his head at the
window. The cinderblock bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the
head, knocking him unconscious. Seems the liquor store window was made of
Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

This one is true, but it's not from 2003. I saw this video tape on America's Dumbest Criminals several years ago.