Wasn't it in Brazil where some scrap company got a Cesium-137 irradiator from a hospital, opened it up, and let the local kids play with the glow-in-the-dark powder they found inside?
At least in this case relatively few people were hurt, though I feel for the guy's family.
That does sound about right - guess the gene pool could use a little thinning out down there.
Brazil Radiation Victim Dies
AP
Published: October 28, 1987
LEAD: A junkyard worker who helped break open a capsule containing radioactive cesium 137 died today, the third victim. Israel Batista dos Santos, 22 years old, died after three weeks in critical condition at the Marcilio Dias Naval hospital in Rio. Last Friday, a 6-year-old girl and her aunt died of generalized infection caused by radiation.
A junkyard worker who helped break open a capsule containing radioactive cesium 137 died today, the third victim. Israel Batista dos Santos, 22 years old, died after three weeks in critical condition at the Marcilio Dias Naval hospital in Rio. Last Friday, a 6-year-old girl and her aunt died of generalized infection caused by radiation. The bodies of Maria Gabriela Ferreira, 37, and her niece, Leide Ferreira, were buried Monday. The cesium 137 contaminated 243 people and some 30 tons of material, including clothes, furniture, junkyard scrap and soil.