Toronto, Ontario — This year has no doubt been one of the strangest years for collisions. From nude car-nappers to flying vehicles and strange stowaway creatures; Collision Repair mag has covered it all. Here’s our top ten strangest stories from throughout the year.
All I’m Ass-king For
Feb. 15 — Dave Assman first attempted to put his last name on a licence plate in 1990 but was rejected by the Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) for “profanity.” He recently tried again, and this time SGI denied it because it was suggestive or not in good taste. So Assman – pronounced OSS-men- took some action and decided to get an oversized decal designed to replicate the plate that he wanted on the tailgate of his white Dodge Ram pickup truck. “I could have got a plate for the front, but I really wanted a vanity plate on the back of my truck!” Assman wrote in a social media post showing off the decal. So now drivers following behind his truck
Snow Way!
Feb. 28 — A 48-year-old woman living in her car in South Lake Tahoe, California was rescued after a snow plow discovered her vehicle buried in the snow. The woman claims she was sitting in her vehicle under the pile of snow for about five hours and wasn’t concerned about how she was going to get out. Her car battery was dead, and she wasn’t able to roll down her windows. It wasn’t until a snowplow bumped into the back of her vehicle which prompted her trunk to open. After they discovered a vehicle there, the plow workers began to shovel around the vehicle so they could get a tow truck to take it away. But then they noticed a woman’s hand on the window. They ended up getting her out safely, but if the plows didn’t find her vehicle, it could have ended up very different.
Koala-ity Collision
March 21 — An Australian man had an unexpected surprise when he returned to his vehicle. After just stepping outside with his dog at a local vineyard, Tim Whitrow came back to his vehicle to find a koala bear sitting upright in the back seat of his car. While taking a video of this wild experience, Whitrow tried to get the animal out of the car. The koala wasn’t taking no for an answer and swatted Whitrow’s hand a couple of times. Then the koala climbed up to the front seat onto the dash to enjoy some air conditioning and creating some damage in the meantime with its long, strong claws. Eventually, the koala made its way out of the front passenger door and escaped into the bushes.
Hawaii Shirt Hero
Apr. 17 — Several videos captured a man in dark clothing dousing the sidewalk and nearby cars parked on the side of the street in gasoline. Many of the cars were engulfed in flames. With so many witnesses around, the man just walked away, raising the can of gasoline in his hand and then dropping his backpack. But one man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, who is now seen as a hero, would not let this guy just walk away like that. The man in the Hawaiian shirt ran after him into a Starbucks coffee shop and knocked him to the ground before police arrived on the scene.
The Fast and the Furious
June 20 — When preschooler Sebastien Swenson’s family noticed both him and their great-grandfather’s SUV was missing, they immediately thought someone hijacked the vehicle and took the four-year-old with them. No one would have imagined that it was, in fact, Sebastien that was the culprit, and he had just borrowed the car to pick up some candy from the gas station. The young boy was able to back out of the driveway and make it a mile and a half from his house, leaving a trail of mailboxes, debris from the front of the car, and eventually part of a tree behind. Sebastien’s epic heist came to a close after crashed the vehicle and was miraculously, quite alright. Although no injuries were sustained (except for of course the front of the car) it will probably be a while before the boy will be able to have candy again.
Burnt Out Baby Daddy
July 8 — One gender reveal party took a turn for the worst when a proud father tried to unveil the sex of his unborn child and accidentally set his car on fire. Instead of releasing baby-boy-blue balloons or sprinkling coloured confetti on party guests, one Australian couple had a more creative way to tell their friends and family that their baby-on-the-way was going to be a boy — an epic burnout. The baby’s proud father decided to perform this stunt on a residential road, hitting the gas and the brake on his car at the same time so that his specially-bought tires spun on the spot and generated large clouds of blue smoke. However, his plans began to crash and burn as his back tires caught fire and the large billow of blue smoke quickly turned black. Thankfully, no one was injured but the car sustained some pretty significant damages and the baby daddy faced a fat fine. The local police urged that next time, a simple cake-cut will do.
There’s a Snake in My Buick
Aug. 15 — What do you get when you combine a rattlesnake, a shotgun, and a can of uranium? Sounds like the beginning of a bizarre joke, but it wasn’t funny to the Guthrie Police Department when they had to handle this exact situation just last June.
When the Oklahoma-based police department pulled over Stephen Jennings at around 11 a.m. on June 26, the first thing they discovered about this strange situation was that in fact, the car he was driving was not his at all. The next thing they found – a rattlesnake. Disturbed by the bizarre pet riding in the back of Jennings stolen vehicle, the Guthrie Police decided to further investigate and found an open bottle of whiskey, a gun in the console, and a canister of powdered uranium. “He’s got a rattlesnake, a stolen vehicle, firearm, and somebody under arrest,” stated Guthrie Police Sgt. Anthony Gibbs. “The uranium is the wild card in that situation.” Although facing charges for having open alcohol in a stolen vehicle, Jennings is off the hook for having uranium in his possession.
Buck Wild
Aug. 8 — Missouri police were called to the scene of a very bizarre crash when a woman’s missing truck was discovered on fire on a stranger’s front lawn next to a stark naked man. On the morning of July 24, a 30-year-old gentleman decided to take a running 1988 Chevrolet Truck he discovered out for a test drive. Down the highway, Backwards. Buck naked. It was only moments after the owner of the truck, (a young woman who has remained nameless) realized her vehicle was missing when she and the entire neighbourhood heard a loud boom, less than half a mile away. When the woman discovered who had crashed her vehicle, she recognized the thief right away. “She saw a gentleman walking up the street [earlier that morning],” Gerald McCauley, a friend of the truck’s owner had stated. “She sees his head, and then she sees he’s not wearing a shirt, and then she sees he’s not wearing anything. And he said ‘Good morning’ to her and just kept on walking.” He managed to clip two cars before crashing onto a front lawn and completely crumpling the car, igniting a substantial fire. Unsurprisingly, the man has sustained some minor injuries from the crash, and authorities are still trying to determine what to charge him with.
Beary Mysterious
Sept. 13 — On Friday the 13th, a resident of Port Moody, B.C. was awakened in the early hours of the morning when they heard their car alarm sound off. When they went to investigate, they found an unexpected intruder: a black bear had opened the door to their unlocked vehicle and climbed inside. The bear had then closed the door and locked itself inside the vehicle. Footage uploaded by Port Moody police shows the bear struggling to escape from the vehicle, pulling at seat belts and clawing at the dashboard. It is unclear what drew the bear to the vehicle, as there was reportedly no food inside. Perhaps the creature was just curious and looking to explore before settling down for its winter hibernation. A news release from the Port Moody police said B.C. conservation officers were called to the scene, where they helped free the animal.
A Carrie Collision
Oct. 31 — An American university student accidentally treated first responders to a real-life horror show last weekend. On Oct. 25 Sidney Wolfe, a West Virginia university student, attended a haunted house event where she was promoting her upcoming role in a musical adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie. On her way home from the event, still dressed in her full Carrie getup, Wolfe’s car struck a deer.
“If anyone wants to know how my weekend went I totalled my car while dressed up as Carrie and everyone who was a first responder thought I was dead haha I’m so sorry,” Wolfe wrote in a now-viral tweet. Wolfe also attached images of her car and costume after the accident. She also said she was approached by several officers as they arrived at the scene, most of them expressing genuine concern for her well-being. “The second round of cops that came in weren’t in on the makeup and said, ‘Are we just gonna ignore that blood is dripping down her face and she needs medical assistance?’” Wolfe told a local news source. Save for a slight bruise on her leg, Wolfe was uninjured by the accident.
