Darwin Award

The Darwin Award is nearly always granted posthumously. This citation is bestowed upon (the remains of) that individual, who, through single-minded self-sacrifice, has done the most to remove undesirable elements from the human gene pool.

Don't fence me in

By Michael Fleet

[Electronic Telegraph, 22 Apr 1997] A BOY fell 200ft to his death moments after his sister told him to stop fooling around near a cliff edge, an inquest was told yesterday.

Jamie Underdown, 10, fell from Seaford Head, East Sussex, while out walking a dog with his sister Jemma, 12, and two friends.

It was the first time he had been allowed to go to the cliff without an adult and he had been warned to be careful by his mother, the inquest at Eastbourne was told.

Despite the warning, Jamie was playing close to the edge, pretending to fall and shouting for help. Jemma said in a statement: "I kept telling him if he played too close to the edge he would fall over and die. He kept calling me 'Bossy Boots'. He didn't listen."

Jasmine Rowson, eight, who was also on the cliff walk, said: "Jamie slipped and he was trying to get back up. He was hanging on to the edge. I touched his hand and went to get Vicky and Jemma but they did not believe me. I went back and he slipped and fell."

Jamie's mother Sandra is now campaigning for the local council to fence off the cliffs where he died. She told the inquest: "I was told I was an over- protective parent so I started to let him do things. The last words I said to him were, 'All right, do not be long. Be careful'."

The coroner, David Wadman, said: "One has to take a practical viewpoint. It would be a substantial operation to fence the entire cliff in East Sussex.

"This was a lively young lad enjoying himself and showing off perhaps. He was fooling around and at one stage he was even tragically apeing the disaster that was to occur a few moments later."

See the Light

[News of the Weird, 16 Apr 1997] Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, Calif. as he fell face-first through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the large flashlight he had palced in his mouth (to keep his hands free) crammed against the base of his skull as he hit the floor.

Can't keep a good fish down

[9 Apr 1997, Bayou Vista, La] Steven Hill Epperson, 36, popped a friend's 6-inch tropical fish into his mouth as a joke Sunday and died when it got stuck in his throat.
The Jack Dempsey fish became wedged in Epperson's airway, said Dr. F.H. Metz, coroner for St. Mary Parish.

[News of the Weird, 21 Mar 1997] Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in February in Selbyville, Del., as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger. And in February, according to police in Windsor, Ont., Daniel Kolta, 27, and Randy Taylor, 33, died in a head-on collision, thus earning a tie in the game of chicken they were playing with their snowmobiles.

[News of the Weird, 17 Jan 1997] Michael Anderson Godwin made News of the Weird posthumously in 1989. He had spent several years awaiting South Carolina's electric chair on a murder conviction before having his sentence reduced to life in prison. In March 1989, sitting on a metal toilet in his cell and attempting to fix his small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted. On January 1, 1997, Laurence Baker, also a convicted murderer once on death row but later serving a life sentence at the state prison in Pittsburgh, Pa., was electrocuted by his homemade earphones as he watched his small TV while sitting on his metal toilet.

[News of the Weird, 13 Jan 1997] Benjamin Arley Ortega suffocated in October in Napa, Calif., when his head got stuck between a wall and the ceiling of a storage shed he was burglarizing. And Rafael Miettunen drowned near Cleveland, Tenn., in April as he was making a getaway on a Jet-Ski he had stolen. And Rex C. Stark, 36, drowned in a pond near New Castle, Ky., in November where he had sought refuge from a state trooper, who had chased him after a car accident.

Do you need a hat, if you can't keep your head?

[AP, Slidell, La., January 1997] A man who opened his car door and sped backward to look for his hat fell out onto his head and died.

Jason Jinks, 20, of Bay St. Louis, Miss., died of his injuries Wednesday, three days after the accident.

Jinks was driving when his hat flew out the window. A 14-year-old boy who was in the back seat told sheriff's deputies that Jinks stopped, put the car in reverse and backed up at 25 to 30 mph in the dark with the door open.

He fell out after he hit the brakes.

The boy and a girl who was also in the back seat said Jinks had been drinking whiskey and taking pills.

Father & Son team fry selves chasing parrot with net at end of aluminum pole. They got on the garage and touched a high tension line.

Zoned Out

[News of the Weird, 28 Dec 1996] In October, a 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who "totally zoned when he ran," according to his wife, accidentally jogged off of a 200-foot-high cliff on his daily run.

Key Mistake

[News of the Weird, 28 Dec 1996] In September in Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing headfirst through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.

Safety First?

[News of the Weird, 1 Nov 1996] A 28-year-old expert mountain climber fell to his death near Redding, Calif., in September as he was demonstrating safety techniques to a group of teenagers. He had severed his main line to demonstrate the security of the second line, but the second line failed.

That was one nasty cactus

[Playboy] Some guy liked to go out into the desert with a shotgun and several cases of beer. His practice was to shoot at the base of the saguaro cactus until they fell over.

When he didn't return the next day a search party was sent out. They found him crushed by one of the cacti he had toppled.

Thief killed by train as he flees along line

[Des Burkinshaw, Dec 1996] A youth was killed by a train last night as made his escape after robbing a passenger at a nearby station.

A gang of three or four youths had attacked a man at Waltham Cross station, north London. They fled along the track towards Enfield Lock station when one was hit and killed instantly by a Stansted Express at 6.28pm.

Acting Inspector Gary Young, of British Transport Police, said: "Shortly before the deceased was hit by the train there was a robbery at Waltham Cross station, two miles to the north. We believe that the robbery suspects ran off down the track and we believe that one of them was then hit by the train."

The male victim of the robbery was taken to Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield for treatment to minor injuries. Mr Young said the train driver raised the alarm after hitting the youth. "The driver was obviously in shock and was sent home after we arrived," he said.

Police searched the area with thermal imaging equipment after reports at first that more than one gang member had been hit. The line into Liverpool Street was closed for inquiries into the incident, but was expected to be open by this morning.

This story is not true; it's an urban myth.

Jet Assisted

[Arizona] The Arizona (U.S.) Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road, at the apex of a curve.

The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene.

The boys in the lab finally figured out what it was, and what had happened.

It seems that a guy had somehow got hold of a JATO unit, (Jet Assisted Take Off, actually a solid-fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra `push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert, and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed, and fired off the JATO!!

The facts as best as could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 MPH and continuing at full power for an additional 20-25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20) seconds before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.

Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.

Best as they could determine, he was doing somewhere between 250 and 300 MPH (350-420 KPH) when he came to that curve....

The brakes were completely burned away, apparently from trying to slow the car.

NOTE: Solid-fuel rockets don't have an 'off'... once started, they burn at full thrust 'till the fuel is all gone.

[San Jose Mercury News] An angry suitor used his shotgun like a club to break the windshield on a new car of a former girlfriend. The gun discharged and blew a hole in his gut.

How Shocking

[Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1 Jan 1993] In December near Mineral Wells, Tex., three men who were attempting to steal copper wire off live electrical lines for resale were electrocuted. Copper wiring is a valuable scrap metal in Texas but is usually stolen from electric cables that are not being used.

[British Sunday Express] Poacher Marino Malerba who shot dead a stag standing above him on an overhanging rock,and was killed instantly when it fell on him.

[Reuter News Service, Perth] A Perth man cut off his ears, penis and testicles in a fit of rage after arguing with a woman and has refused to have then re-attached, police said yesterday.

The 32-year-old man severed the organs with a kitchen knife at his suburban home after an argument with a woman late Wednesday. Police said the man placed the organs in a freezer and drove himself seven kilometers (five miles) to a hospital. Hospital staff would not comment but a police spokesman said the man had rejected attempts to sew the organs back on.

The spokesman said police had investigated but would not take action because there was no apparent breach of the law.

[Hickory Daily Record, 21 December 1992] Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death in December in Newton, N. C., when, awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a Smith & Wesson .38 Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear.

[News of the Weird, 27 Apr 1993, San Jose Mercury News] Two California miscreants paid a disproportionately high price for their crimes recently: In Chatsworth, a 23-year-old man was killed by a train after he fell onto the tracks as he was trying to sneak into a drive-in movie. And a man in his 20s was killed when his body became wedged in the housing underneath a bus he was using for a jail escape in Los Angeles.

[News of the Weird, 18 May 1993, San Jose Mercury News] A 24-year-old salesman from Hialeah, Fla., was killed near Lantana, Fla., in March when his car smashed into a pole in the median strip of Interstate 95 in the middle of the afternoon. Police said that the man was traveling at 80 MPH and, judging by the sales manual that was found open and clutched to his chest, had been busy reading.

[Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario] Man slips, falls 23 stories to his death

A man cleaning a bird feeder on his balcony of his condominium apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to his death, police said Monday.

Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheeled chair Sunday when the accident occurred, said Inspector D'Arcy Honer of the Peel regional police.

"It appears the chair moved and he went over the balcony," Honer said. "It's one of those freak accidents. No foul play is suspected."

[UPI, Toronto] Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and plunged 24 floors to his death.

A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early Friday evening as he was explaining the strength of the building's windows to visiting law students.

Hoy previously had conducted demonstrations of window strength according to police reports. Peter Lauwers, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was ``one of the best and brightest'' members of the 200-man association.

Slip Sliding Away

[AP, Mammoth Lakes] A San Anselmo man died yesterday when he hit a lift tower at the Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the slope on a foam pad, authorities said.

Matthew David Hubal, 22, was pronounced dead at Centinela Mammoth Hospital. The accident occurred about 3 a.m., the Mono County Sheriff's Department said.

Hubal and his friends apparently had hiked up a ski run called Stump Alley and undid some yellow foam protectors from the lift towers, said Lieutenant Mike Donnelly of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department.

The pads are used to protect skiers who might hit the towers.

The group apparently used the pads to slide down the ski slope and Hubal crashed into a tower. It was not clear if the tower he hit was one with its pad removed.

"With the cold temperatures, the snow was probably pretty fast," said Donnelly.

A Vapid Death

[Unknown, 25 March 1993] ...gives new meaning to the term ``he got beaned''...

Terrible diet and room with no ventilation are being blamed for the death of a men who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on his body but autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system. His diet had consisted of beans (they said what kind; I forgot) cabbage (and a couple other things). It was just the right combination of foods.

It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing from the poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed. The ME said, had he been outside or had his windows opened it wouldn't have been fatal but the man was shut up in his near airtight bedroom. He was ``...a big man with a huge capacity for creating [this deadly gas].'' Three of the rescue workers got sick and one was hospitalized.

[Reuters, Warsaw, Poland, 5 May 1995] A poacher electrocuting fish in a lake in central Poland fell into the water and suffered the same fate as his quarry, police said Thursday.

The 24-year-old man was one of four who went fishing with a cable, one end of which they attached to a net and the other to a high-voltage electricity supply line, the PAP news agency quoted a police official in Wloclawek as saying. "For a while everything went according to the poachers' plan and they had fish in their bags. But at a certain moment the man holding the net tripped and fell into the water," the agency said. The other poachers tried in vain to revive him, it said.

[AP, Cairo, Egypt, 31 Aug 1995] Six people drowned Monday while trying to rescue a chicken that had fallen into a well in southern Egypt.

An 18-year-old farmer was the first to descend into the 60-foot well. He drowned, apparently after an undercurrent in the water pulled him down, police said.

His sister and two brothers, none of whom could swim well, went in one by one to help him, but also drowned. Two elderly farmers then came to help, but they apparently were pulled down by the same undercurrent.

The bodies of the six were later pulled out of the well in the village of Nazlat Imara, 240 miles south of Cairo.

The chicken was also pulled out. It survived.

[AP, St. Louis] Robert Puelo, 32, was apparently being disorderly in a St. Louis market. When the clerk threatened to call police, Puelo grabbed a hot dog, shoved it in his mouth, and walked out without paying for it.

Police found him unconscious in front of the store: paramedics removed the six-inch wiener from his throat, where it had choked him to death.

[Unknown] To poacher Marino Malerba, who shot a stag standing above him on an overhanging rock -- and was killed instantly when it fell on him.

[CNN, 6 Sep 96] The first fatality from hurricane Fran: In Virginia, a woman driving an all-terrain vehicle attempted to drive through a flooded river and was swept away and drowned.

The implied assumption was that she believed that all-terrain meant all-terrain.

Rhino kills Briton on reserve

[Adrian Lee] A BRITISH conservation worker was gored to death by a rhinoceros at an African wildlife reserve after climbing into its enclosure.

Daniel Lipscombe, 22, from Guernsey, was helping the fully-grown male to settle into its new surroundings when it charged. He died instantly at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, near Serowe, in Botswana. A graduate of Bristol University, he was working as a volunteer, helping a breeding programme for the endangered white rhinoceros. His parents, John and Nadia Lipscombe, arrived at the sanctuary yesterday after flying from the Channel Islands.

The animal involved had just arrived at the reserve and Mr Lipscombe was moving it between large enclosures known as bomas where the animals are monitored for a few days before entering the main sanctuary. It was the first time he had carried out the monitoring work and colleagues said it was not standard practice to enter a boma with a rhinoceros.

Rachel Potasznik, the administrator of the sanctuary, said: "All rhinos are dangerous but they are not normally aggressive." Mr Lipscombe was not carrying a weapon or stick, she said. "This was a tragic accident ... we don't understand why he was inside the boma."

The rhinoceros, which is more than 30 years old, will not be destroyed. Miss Potasznik, an American, said: "Daniel would be horrified if we killed the animal. It cannot be blamed."

"Daniel was a gentle, caring, self-effacing man and we will all miss him," she added.

The white rhinoceros is one of five rhino species left in the world and is the commonest, mainly because of strict conservation policies in South Africa.

Angry Thai elephant kills man over banana tease

[Bangkok, 27 July 1996] A domesticated Thai elephant trampled and killed a man after he teased it with a banana, police said on Saturday.

Police in Ayutthaya province north of Bangkok said the male elephant, Yogi, charged and killed the man on Friday after he repeatedly offered the animal a banana and took it away as it reached out with its trunk.

The man was drunk, police said.

If you're tall, duck!

A filmmaker was producing a documentary for truck drivers about the dangers of low overpasses. He was on the back of one truck, filming a following truck, when he was knocked off and killed by, you guessed it, a low overpass.

Man vs. Machine

A man was killed by a Coke machine, which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it.

Cat atonic

Gresham, Oregon, police shot and killed a woman who was holding her cat at knifepoint in a grocery store.

It only rattled when he listened

James Burns, 34, of Alamo, Mich., was killed in March as he was trying to repair what police described as a "farm-type dump truck." Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could ascertain the source of a troubling noise. Burns's clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns "wrapped in the drive shaft."

Man drowns with head stuck in sewer grate

[Gannett News Service, Detroit, 1 October 1996] A 41-year-old man trying to retrieve hs cars keys drowned in 2 feet of water when he became stuck head-down in an 18-inch-wide sewer grate.

Ray Langston's keys fell through the holes in a heavy metal storm grate over the weekend, police said. Determined to retrieve them, Langston got a coat hanger, forced open the grate and stuck his head inside.

"He couldn't get out," said his brother, Dwight Langston. "Some people tried to help him, but I guess it was too late."

By the time Ray Langston was pulled free, he had drowned, his brother said. He was pronounced dead about an hour after he became stuck Saturday, police said.

Dwight Langston, not home when his brother drowned, said he later checked the grate and couldn't believe his brother was able to work himself inside. "It was just a small space."

Hungry Python Kills Owner

FROM QUENTIN LETTS IN NEW YORK

[Times of London electronic version, October 11 1996] A NEW YORK teenager was crushed to death by his pet python after he had failed to keep the snake properly fed, police reported.

Grant Williams, 19, was found unconscious in a pool of blood, the life practically squeezed out of him by a 12ft Burmese python named Damien, which was still wrapped over his body. The snake had been given nothing more than a single dead chicken in the past week and may have been crazed by hunger.

Mr Williams was found in the hallway. He may have been trying to escape the flat to summon help. Medical orderlies summoned the strength of body and of mind to lift the 45lb, 5in-thick python off Mr Williams and hurl it into an adjacent room, but the snake lover died in hospital.

At the time of the attack, Mr Williams was preparing to feed Damien a live chicken. It is possible that the python, peckish, opted for the larger prey. When on the brink of a kill, the Burmese python (Molorus bivattatus) can move with deadly speed, and there are few creatures able to escape its grasp.

Mr Williams may have suspected that his familiarity with Damien placed him above danger, but a hungry python does not quibble about such niceties. Captain Thomas Kelly, from the 46th precinct, said: "It looks accidental."

Mr Williams and his brother kept a number of snakes, many uncaged, in their Bronx flat. The dead man's mother, Carmelita Williams, said that she had tried to persuade her son to abandon his hobby. "I begged him to get rid of the python," she said, weeping. "I even threatened to call the police."

Damien was last night caged at an animal control centre, after being fed. Its fate is uncertain.

Special Merit

Dumbells ...No pain, no gain

[AP, THIS is TRUE, 10 November 1996] Four bodybuilders from Massapequa Park, N.Y., couldn't get steroids to help them bulk up, so they decided to make their own using a recipe from the "Underground Steroid Handbook".

"They were supposed to let it sit for a while until it reached a certain pH level," a Nassau County police spokesman said. "But they did not wait. At the level they drank it, it was like drinking lye."

Police officers responding to the scene found the fumes so strong they had to be treated for chemical inhalation. One of the barbellers is in "very critical condition" and another is in "critical but stable" condition.

Blasting Cap Explodes in Man's Mouth at Party

[Associated Press, Kincaid, W. VA] A man at a party popped a blasting cap into his mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion that blew off his lips, teeth and tongue, state police said Wednesday.

Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during a party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D. Payne.

``Another man had it in an aquarium, hooked to a battery, and was trying to explode it,'' Payne said. ``It wouldn't go off and this guy said, `I'll show you how to set it off.'

``He put it in his mouth and bit down. It blew all his teeth off, his tongue and his lips,'' Payne said.

Stromyer was listed in guarded condition Wednesday with extensive facial injuries, according to a spokesman at Charleston Area Medical Division.

``I just can't imagine anyone doing something like that,'' Payne said.

[UPI, Portland, OR] Doctors at Portland's University Hospital said Wednesday an Oregon man shot through the skull by a hunting arrow is lucky to be alive, and will be released soon from the hospital.

Tony Roberts, 25, lost his right eye last weekend during an initiation into a men's rafting club, Mountain Men Anonymous, in Grants Pass, Ore.

A friend tried to shoot a beer can off his head, but the arrow entered Roberts' right eye. Doctors said had the arrow gone 1 millimeter to the left, a major blood vessel would have cut and Roberts would have died instantly.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Johnny Delashaw at the University Hospital in Portland said the arrow went through 8 to 10 inches of brain, with the tip protruding at the rear of his skill, yet somehow managed to miss all major blood vessels.

Delashaw also said had Robert tried to pull the arrow out on his own he surely would have killed himself.

Roberts admitted afterwards he and his friends had been drinking that afternoon. Said Roberts, ``I feel so dumb about this.''

No charges have been filed but the Josephine Coudistrict attorney's office said the initiation stunt is under investigation.

[Times of London] A THIEF who sneaked into a hospital was scarred for life when he tried to get a suntan.

After evading security staff at Odstock Hospital in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and helping himself to doctors' paging devices, the thief spotted a vertical sunbed. He walked into the unit and removed his clothes for a 45-minute tan.

However, the high-voltage UV machine at the hospital, which is renowned for its treatment of burns victims, has a maximum dosage of ten seconds. After lying on the bed for almost 300 times the recommended maximum time the man was covered in blisters.

Hours later, when the pain of the burns became unbearable, he went to Southampton General Hospital, 20 miles away, in Hampshire. Staff became suspicious because he was wearing a doctor's coat. After tending his wounds they called the police.

Southampton police said: "This man broke into Odstock and decided he fancied a quick suntan. Doctors say he is going to be scarred for life."

Last night police confirmed that a man was arrested for theft.

She Wanted Me

[London Telegraph, 29 June 1996] A MAN needed surgery for a gash in his groin after he was mauled by a bear at San Diego Zoo, California.

Matthew Settles, 28, was attacked by the female Manchurian bear when he jumped into the enclosure. Settles, who comes from San Diego, told rescuers he had climbed the safety barrier surrounding the enclosure after the animals "motioned for him to join them".

What looks like a friendly approach quickly turned into an attack. Zoo workers found Settles in a small pool in the enclosure, the water reddened by his blood.

They used high-pressure hoses and fire extinguisher blasts to drive the animals away. Settles was alert and talking when he taken to the trauma unit at Mercy Hospital after the incident on Friday, said Kathy Maroni, a spokesman.

"The injury was potentially life-threatening, but he came out fine. Had the claw gone one inch either way, it could have been different," she said. Bill Robinson, of San Diego police, said Settles would be having a psychiatric evaluation.

The bears, found mainly in China, usually eat roots and bulbs and are not aggressive by nature. However, threats to their territory can provoke attacks.

Thrifty camper spurns site and picks shocking place to pitch tent

BY MICHAEL HORSNELL

[Times of London, September 1996] A CAMPER survived a 33,000 volt shock when he pitched his tent inside an electricity sub-station after deciding to save money by not using a nearby campsite.

The holidaymaker, aged 23, ignored the danger signs and scaled a pair of 9ft high spiked fences to get into the site near Norwich at night. It seems he suffered a massive shock while lifting his metal tent pole, which probably touched high voltage equipment in the darkness. The alarm was raised by a passerby who saw a flash and heard the man cry out. An ambulance crew had to wait for firemen to release him. The camper, whom police will not identify, suffered burns to his hands and was sent to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

David Betteridge, spokesman for Eastern Electricity, said: "This man is extremely lucky to be alive. To escape with only minor burns is extraordinarily fortunate. Sub-stations are extremely dangerous. It is difficult to imagine a more unsuitable place to put up a tent for the night."

The spokesman added: "He could have got a shock just from moving his pole too close to some of the electrical gear. It need not necessarily have touched it. It is possible his life was saved by his tent pole touching the ground so much of the voltage was earthed."

A Norfolk police spokesman said: "This man has been told in no uncertain terms that he should not have been in the sub-station."