Couple dies in intentional "surprise" pit trap

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A young woman who accidentally killed herself and her husband by digging a 2.5m deep pitfall trap in the sand is currently the subject of tragic ridicule throughout Japan.

The incident transpired on an Ishikawa prefecture beach, when a 23-year-old woman resolved to “surprise” her 23-year-old husband with a pitfall trap.

Together with “four or five” male friends, she spent the afternoon digging out a 2.5m deep and 2.4m wide hole in the sand using shovels, which she then covered with a sheet, which was further disguised with more sand.

Did they learn how to dig pitfalls by watching Pokemon? Of course, Pokemon never really went into the health and safety aspects of this sort of thing beyond "OH NO, WE FELL INTO OUR OWN TRAP".

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She then waited until nightfall and invited her husband out onto the beach, accompanying him to the site of trap.

As planned, both fell into the trap, but it promptly fell in around them and proved impossible to escape.

Nearby friends heard their screams and called in the fire brigade, but by the time they had rescued them from the hole several hours had elapsed and both showed no signs of life.

The couple were taken to hospital, only to be pronounced dead on arrival. They are thought to have suffocated in the sand.

Well, at least their plan worked... sorta... kinda... maybe not.

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According to other beach-goers, the group digging the huge hole were warned that they should fill in the hole and go home as it was dangerous, but they only acknowledged the warning and continued their undertaking anyway.

Police are considering pressing charges of involuntary manslaughter against the surviving group.

Such is the awesome stupidity of their deaths that there is even some speculation that there may have been more sinister motives afoot, although there are also those who merely see them as strong Darwin award contenders (2010 was nearly won by the Korean wheelchair vs elevator man).

Included the link to the second article because that is one of the most amazingly stupid things I've ever seen (link may also be NSFW since it's the same site).

I think the police are right to consider pressing charges because they WERE warned by others of the dangers. They refused to acknowledge them and their careless actions ended up with two people dead. I feel sorry for the husband, he had no idea what was about to happen. The wife, on the other hand, is a twit. What did she think was going to happen? They would have fallen down into the hole without a scratch, laughed it off and then gotten frisky with each other?

This makes Team Rocket look competent by comparison.

This is akin to someone becoming convinced that, like the roadrunner in the Wyel E. Cayote cartoons, they could run off a cliff and remain suspended in mid-air.

Sand shifts. It's notoriously unstable, and any hole that was simply dug with shovels would likely collapse the minute someone disturbed it. You'd have to shore up the walls to ensure otherwise.

2.5 meters? What's that, 8 feet? How the hell did they get out once they dug it in the first place? I mean

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Sand shifts. It's notoriously unstable, and any hole that was simply dug with shovels would likely collapse the minute someone disturbed it. You'd have to shore up the walls to ensure otherwise.

Bingo. Real headlines reads "Senile Idiot Finally Makes Good Point" and "Blind Squirrel Finds Nut."

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As planned, both fell into the trap, but it promptly fell in around them and proved impossible to escape.

Nearby friends heard their screams and called in the fire brigade, but by the time they had rescued them from the hole several hours had elapsed and both showed no signs of life.

Yeah, don't help dig them out yourselves or anything. How did they suffocate while they could yell for help anyway?

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Yeah, don't help dig them out yourselves or anything. How did they suffocate while they could yell for help anyway?

Suffocation is deprivation of enough oxygen to breathe normally. People can still scream even when being smothered with objects like pillows, because they are still taking in some level of air.

Likely case is that eventually the combination of mechanical asphyxiation (from the crushing weight of sand preventing their lungs from expanding), and smothering (by the sand entering the nose and mouth) did the deed.

Seconding the "sinister motives" thing. I bet this was the one couple in every group of friends who constantly PDA and refer to each other by obnoxious cutesy nicknames.

Also, shouldn't the group be charged with public endangerment or something? Since apparently they left the pitfall unmarked on a public beach, unless I'm missing something. What if someone had fallen into the pit before the couple it was meant for?

See if they'd done their SAFEPASS course they'd know that all deep excavations have to be battered back to prevent trench collapse.

People often dig holes on beaches. The wife and her pals probably thought it would be a huge lark. They didn't realise the sand would have become incredibly dry and unstable.

All things considered... they're all idiots, and yes, it is possible for people to be that goddamn stupid.