Darwin Awarded close to home…

[unclebilly]

I heard about this at the Lions meeting the other night. The story sounds a bit incredulous so I had to check my sources… I’ve cut and pasted the text exchange with a friend who lives near the town where this went down, and confirmed the tale…

There is a group of men from the middle east that organize a gathering of similar minded individuals. The purpose of this group is to engage in a contest of catching released pigeons for money. Upwards of $10,000. Various pigeons are coloured and worth varing amounts of $$$. Upon release of birds, individuals run throughout the town (with disregard to property) with nets on very long poles trying to catch these birds.

These gatherings are held in small towns throughout Alberta, chosen for poor RCMP response time as this allows time for the event to occur.

As you may know, when you connect a power line to a pole to a grounded person, electricity takes the shortest path with spectacular results…

The guy holding pole went bang. His companions on either side did not fair well when the power arced through them.

I think 1 dead, 2 severely injured. Stars (air ambulance) and 2 regular ambulances were involved but nobody is really sure of the final tally. One local in the town was nice enough to wash down the lawn where dude blew up.

The other participants scattered and left the injured men on the ground. Some returned next day to try and gather pigeons.

[deckard]

with all those poles that they have do they keep the prize money in a vault?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

I heard about this at the Lions meeting the other night. The story sounds a bit incredulous so I had to check my sources… I’ve cut and pasted the text exchange with a friend who lives near the town where this went down, and confirmed the tale…

There is a group of men from the middle east that organize a gathering of similar minded individuals. The purpose of this group is to engage in a contest of catching released pigeons for money. Upwards of $10,000. Various pigeons are coloured and worth varing amounts of $$$. Upon release of birds, individuals run throughout the town (with disregard to property) with nets on very long poles trying to catch these birds.

These gatherings are held in small towns throughout Alberta, chosen for poor RCMP response time as this allows time for the event to occur.

As you may know, when you connect a power line to a pole to a grounded person, electricity takes the shortest path with spectacular results…

The guy holding pole went bang. His companions on either side did not fair well when the power arced through them.

I think 1 dead, 2 severely injured. Stars (air ambulance) and 2 regular ambulances were involved but nobody is really sure of the final tally. One local in the town was nice enough to wash down the lawn where dude blew up.

The other participants scattered and left the injured men on the ground. Some returned next day to try and gather pigeons.

Yikes! And wow, genius. Well, fewer folks playing the game now.

Originally Posted by deckard

with all those poles that they have do they keep the prize money in a vault?

[Steve Carlton]