Electrocution, anyone? You can't cure stupid.

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Note: 1/7/2013 Two more less-than-intelligent-camper stories on page 2 of this topic!

I swear, I'm not making this up!

The RV park where we are volunteer hosts has two lighted fishing piers that jut out into the Colorado River. Both are covered with puddles of water from today and tonight's rain. The temperature is 40, and the rain is still falling . . . Still, some fishermen and a few small children were out on the pier fishing after dark.

9:00 PM tonight. Knock, knock, knock on our RV door. It was a camper, coming to complain that the fishing lights on the pier he and his children were fishing from had gone out. Off to that pier we went, flashlights in hand. As we approached the electrical box for the pier, the camper said casually, "Everything was fine for a few minutes, but maybe my heater or the extension cords got pretty wet when the last rain hit us." Yep, out on the dark pier stood a small ceramic heater, plugged into two 50' extension cords that were connected and strung out on the floor of the pier so that they'd reach a pedestal on the shore that has a 20-amp outlet and the box that houses the breakers for the shore and pier lights. The camper said the heater was running without a problem until the rain got fairly heavy at one point. Duh.

It's lucky that everyone on that pier wasn't electrocuted. We removed the heater and extension cords, reset the breaker, and told the camper that he most definitely could NOT have a heater or anything else electrical out on the pier at any time, rain or shine.

You just can't cure stupid.

Carolyn
Park host, Matagorda Bay Nature Center RV Park

[bncinwv]

And they reproduce and unfortunately provide the examples that their children will probably follow at some point in the future.
Bingo

[maximo]

You can cure stupid but it is against the law.

Frank

[DQDick]

It never fails to amaze me how absolutely stupid some folks can be.

[Yamaha_Mama]

I wonder if they are going to build a fire on the pier tomorrow night!?!?!

[jimcol]

Well the bright point is it appears the dock and outlet were probably wired correctly? I am just not sure we can pass enough codes to save everyone. Jim

[NCFischers]

As an electrical contractor for most of my life, it never ceases to amaze me how utterly stupid some people can be. I can still be surprised by some idiot inventing a new way to kill himself.

[DarMar]

Thanks for the story, not surprising thought, we will say it again you can't fix stupid!!!

[DHenry]

Another chapter for your book of experience.

[The Oldguard]

You just can’t say enough about natural selection. Well I have taken the barbeque into the fifth wheel as it has started to rain here.

[nosticks]

Another future Darwin Award winner.

[WeBeFulltime]

"Dad did it so it must be OK"!

[PackerFan]

Working 34 years as a Firefighter we always said working with the general public was job security for us. I saw a lot of stupid things in those years on the job.

[DQDick]

Amen to that! As a cop every time I thought I'd seen the ultimate stupidity someone came along and proved me wrong.

[K&Gs3400RL]

Reminds me of

[bob n pam]

For crying out loud! Being a camphost can be so enlightening!

[mhs4771]

I can just hear the guy, "But we've been using that heater and extension cords while fishing for years"

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Two more incidents that have "made the book" down here:

The park has crushed granite 15' by 15' patio areas, nicely kept and bordered. We're under a fire ban here because of the drought, in addition to the park rule that no open fires are allowed at any time, fire ban or not. Saturday evening on our park rounds, we discovered some campers had a fire built directly on the granite patio, right next to the concrete table and benches. After we got it put out, a damaged area about 3' in diameter was left on the granite and the table had black marks where the fire was hitting it. They'd also dumped hot coals at one point in the grass bordering the patio, so we have another burned area there.

In August, one of the RVs in the park caught on fire during the night. Luckily, a dog in that rig awoke the owners in time for them to get out of the camper and extinguish the fire before it did too much damage. The cause of the fire? Mosquitoes had been very bad, and since they love swarming out from under the rigs here, these campers had put a citronella candle on top of an Igloo ice chest and shoved the whole thing under their rig, thinking that the metal container for the candle would prevent the flame from getting too wide or tall. They went to bed, forgetting about the candle. Eventually, the candle melted the area where it was sitting, and when it fell through the lid, it started a fire in the ice chest. Before long, the whole chest went up in flames. The fire scorched some of the undercarriage of the rig as well as the outside wall nearest where the candle had been placed. Good thing the campers had a dog that awakened them before a full-blown disaster had occurred.

Carolyn
PS: I have enough material for a book, I'm sure. Part of it will be a section of photographs of nothing but sewer hoses and their positions between the rig and the sewer connection--on the ground, in knots, propped up by 6-packs of beer, you name it.

[NCFischers]

Can I get a signed first edition?

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Jim, you surely can! Seriously, I've been keeping a journal of our experiences here, and I think I have more than enough material for a book. Maybe some RV web site or Trailer Life might be interested, too. Just think--I'll be here 6 more weeks, so no telling what else I'll see. Maybe more campers who pull their black tank valve handles and stand by while the sewer hoses pop off and the tank contents spill out on them and on the ground? How about the campers who complain that the sewer connection holes are too small for their hoses and too far from the sites, only to point out that they're attempting to stick the hose down one of the clearly marked freshwater service access points . . .

Carolyn