Two Belgian bank robbers are this year’s winners of the Darwin Awards, given to those ‘doing the most to improve the human gene pool by removing themselves from it.
The pair decided to rob an ATM in Dinant, electing to blow up the machine and make off with their ill-gotten gains.
However, it did not go quite according to plan. A slight over enthusiasm in estimating the quantity of dynamite required to open the ATM resulted in them blowing up the entire bank, completely destroying the whole building.
One of the robbers was found with serious head injuries after the blast and later died in hospital. His accomplice was at first believed to have fled the scene, but his body was found twelve hours later under the rubble of what used to be the bank.
The runner-up was American Shawn Motero. Stuck in a traffic jam in Florida he became desperate for the loo. There being none in the area, he got out of his car and jumped over a concrete wall to find a more secluded spot. Unfortunately, he was on a bridge and plunged 65 feet to his death.