The following is taken
from a Florida newspaper:
A man was working on his motorcycle
on his patio and his wife was in the house in the kitchen. The man was racing the engine
on the motorcycle and somehow, the motorcycle slipped into gear. The man, still holding
the handlebars, was dragged through a glass patio door and the motorcycle dumped onto the
floor inside the house.
The wife, hearing the crash, ran
into the dining room, and found her husband laying on the floor, cut and bleeding, the
motorcycle laying next to him and the patio door shattered. The wife ran to the phone and
summoned an ambulance.
Because they lived on a fairly large
hill, the wife went down the several flights of long steps to the street to direct the
paramedics to her husband.
After the ambulance arrived and
transported the husband to the hospital, the wife uprighted the motorcycle and pushed it
outside. Seeing that gas had spilled on the floor, the wife obtained some papers towels,
blotted up the gasoline, and threw the towels in the toilet.
The husband was treated at the
hospital and was released to come home. After arriving home, he looked at the shattered
patio door and the damage done to his motorcycle. He became despondent, went into the
bathroom, sat on the toilet and smoked a cigarette. After finishing the cigarette, he
flipped it between his legs into the toilet bowl while still seated.
The wife, who was in the kitchen,
heard a loud explosion and her husband screaming. She ran into the bathroom and found her
husband laying on the floor. His trousers had been blown away and he was suffering burns
on the buttocks, the back of his legs and his groin. The wife again ran to the phone and
called for an ambulance.
The same ambulance crew was
dispatched and the wife met them at the street. The paramedics loaded the husband on the
stretcher and began carrying him to the street. While they were going down the stairs to
the street accompanied by the wife, one of the paramedics asked the wife how the husband
had burned himself. She told them and the paramedics started laughing so hard, one of them
tipped the stretcher and dumped the husband out. He fell down the remaining steps and
broke his ankle.