[Hurriyet Daily News] Pumping pressurized air into a friend's backside is apparently a prank not as rare as many people may think, particularly in ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, as seen by the latest potentially fatal incident.
Oh, sure. I've heard of... ummm... no similar incidents.
A 42-year-old man, identified as R.H., was hospitalized on April 16, after one of his colleagues, identified as 39-year-old H.S.T., jokingly pushed a pressurized air gun into his anus while working at a plastic factory in the central Anatolian province of Karaman, according to Dogan News Agency.
How many people do you know, or even suspect, have ever jokingly pushed a pressurized air gun into anyone's anus, friend or otherwise?
Fellow workers, including the pranker, took R.H. to the hospital after he collapsed when his stomach instantly filled with air.
"Har har! Hey, R.H! You look like a balloon wid feet!"
He underwent an operation at Karaman State Hospital and was still at death's door at the hospital's intensive care unit on April 17 with partially torn bowels.
"Careful, Doctor Kildare! He could blow at any time!"
Police detained the suspect, who initially claimed the victim had fallen on the air gun accidentally,
"Yeah. He fell. It wuz terrible."
before admitting to the prank.
"Ummm... Yeah. It wuz me."
Potentially fatal air gun pranks are as old as the tool itself, with one of the oldest examples in Turkey reported in 1962, when a worker in Ankara was maimed. Similar jokes continued around Turkey in the 2000s, leading to several injuries.
Take that sort of thing into account when you're packing your pants for your trip to Turkey.
Pressurized air gun pranks have also resulted in injuries around the world, from Britannia to China. In January 2013, a Bangladeshi cleaner in Dubai was sentenced to six months in prison due to a similar prank, according to local media.
I'm glad I lead such a sheltered existence.