Posted on 12/30/2011 10:39:05 PM PST by expat1000
VANCOUVER — An RCMP officer has filed a lawsuit against two fellow officers in the bomb squad unit, the RCMP and the province of B.C. after a mechanical doll he kept at his desk was rigged to explode, which disfigured him to the point of requiring hand surgery and hearing aids in both ears.
Cpl. Tyrone Hempston suffered “severe injuries” after returning from Christmas holidays to his desk at the Explosive Disposal Unit in Delta on Jan. 4, 2010, where he noticed someone had tampered with his “Dirty Bertie” mechanical doll.
“He sat down and picked up the doll, held it in both hands close to his lap, then switched it on and it exploded,” according to the writ filed in Vancouver Supreme Court of B.C.
The writ claims unspecified damages for physical injuries and nerve damage to his hands that have required “numerous surgeries,” hearing loss and tinnitus in both ears, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, sleeping and anxiety disorders and “nervous shock, anguish and loss of faith in his colleagues.”
Hempston’s lawsuit alleges Cpl. Nigel Blake and Const. Martin Simpson “conspired to shock” him by placing a “high explosive” SD-100 detonator that had been confiscated from a U.S. film company trying to bring them into Canada and turned over to the EDU for disposal.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
“A ‘practical joker’ deserves applause for his wit according to its quality. Bastinado is about right. For exceptional wit one might grant keelhauling. But staking him out on an anthill should be reserved for the very wittiest.”
—Robert A. Heinlein
Maybe, but...
Hempston would have been eligible for full retirement in September 2011.
At age 44. Sounds like he's already got a good financial deal going.
Padding.
Obviously they do not have a co-ed facility there or that doll would bring on a harassment suit.
I’m trying to figure out who’s stupider: The EOD guys who rigged the detonator, or the EOD guy who picked up the doll, suspecting it had been tampered with, sat it in his own lap and turned it on.
He shoulda been blowed up for that.
For great justice.
WTF? Bomb your coworker?
Hmmm. Sounds like criminal act to me.
Hahaha...for an adolescent boy, I always thought “Dirty Bertie” was the Canadian/Brit/Aussie equivalent of “Little Billy” who is the main character of jokes only us sex-starved boys used to tell each other and laugh at...:)
I have never been a big one for practical jokes, unless they are completely harmless and I know even the person they are played on is guaranteed to at least give a grin.
Over the years, I have watched people play pranks that were guaranteed to embarrass or make someone uncomfortable, and I could only shake my head.
When I was a young man in the Navy, I used to see people play pranks all the time, most just stupid and harmless, but some were very involved and could have got someone hurt.
The one I remember most that was emblematic of why practical jokes can be bad due to unforeseen factors, was when we had been at sea for a while and were nearing the point where people become irritable and bored.
A sailor was sitting at a small table, and had fallen fast asleep sitting upright with his elbow on a table, his palm outstretched supporting the side of his head.
As he sat there sitting upright, asleep in his long-sleeved green flight deck jersey, his entire armpit was exposed. One of the guys shushed us with his finger to his mouth, pulled out his Bick lighter, and decided he was going to give the sleeping guy the armpit equivalent of a hot foot.
He silently crept over, placed the lighter about 3 inches under the taut fabric covering the guys armpit. He lit the lighter, and turned to give us a silly grin. Those of us watching saw smoke, and then a millisecond later the subject of the prank leapt to his feet screaming.
Apparently, there was a tiny hole in this guy’s jersey that none of us could see, and the flame went right through the hole and lit the guys armpit hair on fire. He wasn’t burned too badly, but I felt pretty bad just sitting there watching it, and I know the guy who did it felt really bad, because he and the subject were buddies, and I know he definitely didn’t want to hurt him.
But that wasn’t the worst one. The worst mother of all pranks screw ups occurred around 3 AM one morning while we were steaming in the Mediterranean.
From what we were told (and it was our division officer who told us this is a group) there was a guy standing watch on the Port Quarter, sitting in the little chair in his pea coat, wearing his sound powered phones on his head. He had apparently fallen asleep, which as everyone knows is very bad, but fortunately (or actually, unfortunately) to his buddies dropped by to say hello and chat with him, only to find him asleep.
Apparently, this was too rich and opportunity to pass up. One of them crept over on his hands and knees and tied the guy’s shoelaces together as he snoozed. They then backed into the hatch out of sight and with cupped hands, called out in a loud stage whisper “Man Overboard! Man Overboard!”
If the accounts were to be believed, they got exactly the result they were looking for. One can imagine the guy hearing this and leaping to his feet, his unseeing eyes bulging with panic as he scanned the ocean, then immediately stumbling and planting himself face down on the metal deck, His buddies giggling hysterically in the background. Their joke had played out exactly as they hoped.
Except for one thing.
There was a person in the catwalk above them in the dark who heard the guy call out “Man Overboard” to their sleeping buddy, and raised the general alarm.
At 3 AM in the middle of the Mediterranean, probably 10,000 men on maybe a dozen ships were awakened from their sleep and began rushing up and down ladders as the entire group executed the Man Overboard drill, only it wasn’t a drill.
We heard the guys got court martialed, but that was all we ever heard.
So, you can guess I am always to mindful of unforeseen consequences to enjoy most practical jokes...
There you go. ;^)
Bob was a wise man.
I was not aware of him, but he sure got it right here. Thanks for the intro.
If you are not familiar with Robert Heinlein’s work I envy you, because you have some wonderful reading ahead.
I learned that some things are best not discovered.
We should really have an ongoing thread dedicated to sea stories (or other military service stories.)
LOL...agreed. But hey...God’s Honest Truth on that one (how many times did you hear THAT with an upheld palm facing you?)
Many times, my FRiend, many times.
Happy New Year!
And to you, Semper911, and to you...
Perhaps it is partly due to my ignorance of Canada's justice system.
But reading the article does not tell me who, what, when and where.
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