Man Slices Own Head Off in Supermarket Suicide

Reuters ^ | Wed May 7, 2003; 9:17 AM ET | Reuters Staff

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - A South African man died trying to cut his own head off with a butcher's band saw in a major supermarket, police said on Wednesday.

Superintendent Jay Naicker said the Shoprite Checkers store in Richards Bay had been ready to close on Monday when the man wandered in and headed for the meat department. "He just walked in, went to the band saw machine and switched it on," Naicker told Reuters. "Apparently he knew what he was doing. He put his neck to the blade and it cut about half way through before he fell to the floor."

Naicker said the man, later identified as 31-year-old Emmanuel Gumbi, was pronounced dead at the scene.

He said police had turned up no motive for the suicide, which stunned staff and shoppers at the store in northern Kwazulu-Natal province.

[Dog]

Stay away from the special on neck bones....

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Wow, now that shows some imagination! I'd sure hate to be the responding police officer to that car "accident".

[Redcloak]

Didn't he do this last week too?

[weegee]

And I thought it was bad enough when the butcher puts his thumb on the scale.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

And people were wondering why the stew meat was selling at such a discount.

[sonserae]

"I'll have a side of head please"

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Stay away from the head cheese.

[listenhillary]

I'll skip the processed Head Cheese for a while also.

[fhayek]

Sounds like the guy didn't have a very good head on his shoulders.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I beat you to it by about 5 seconds.

I'd sure hate to be the young apprentice butcher on that day.

[b4its2late]

Be careful out there....... :-)

[detective]

I doubt very much it really happenned the way it was described in the article. One or more people probably killed him and made up this story to tell the police.

[StriperSniper]

the guy that put the top down in his convertible, tied 150 feet of rope to a tree and put a loop around his neck and drove off at high speed.

If it didn't work do you think he would have got up and said, "I should've had a V-8!"

;-)

[listenhillary]

I've seen it being made. I never had the nerve to try it.

[b4its2late]

You know why I can't find it? It was pulled.....

10....9....8....7....6....5....

[b4its2late]

Whew. Moved to chat..... You might have another AM on duty and you might stay under the radar.....

[tet68]

Heck, today he would have sued the auto manufacturer, the rope company and the guy who owned the tree !!!

"YOur Honor, you see before you a dead man, well that is,
I should have been dead but for the negligence of Blah,blah,
Motors for not putting a large enough motor in their vehicles, the rope from X company did not test at the rated strength, and did not, I repeat did NOT display a suicide warning, the property owner, Mr.Y should have fenced in his tree. I rest in peace."

[b4its2late]

Let's see.....

My reply to the other thread went something like this......

Sounds like this guy turned out to be a real "meathead".

[NCC-1701]

Wasn't aware of this. I wish someone would have given me a "heads-up" about this.

[petuniasevan]

If you get on mhking's "Hold Muh Beer And Watch This" ping list, you'll miss very few weird stories.