Thursday’s Trifles are based on what I’ve read in our local newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden
A fine 50% discount
A judge in Groningen detracted 50 Euros from a fine, because the suspect had taken the trouble to make the journey to the Groninger Court to defend himself. A trip of about 200 kilometres.
The man was convicted because he had, under the influence of alcohol, demolished a window of his brother’s car. The judge gave him a 100 Euros fine, of which 50 Euros were a conditional sentence, taking both into consideration that the guy had already paid for a new window for his brother’s car and that he had made the journey to Court.
Mouse shoots dentist
This isn’t funny.
A Dutch dentist died a tragic death on his holiday location in the French Dordogne. The dentist had taken a shotgun into the garden of his holiday cottage to hunt for mice. He wanted to kill a mouse with the butt of his gun, but the blow caused the gun to go off and it killed the dentist.
Well done, that judge! Shame about the dentist - he can't learn from his mistake. One has to ask why his gun was loaded if he was only going to use the butt . . . tsk,tsk.
ReplyDeleteJabblog,
ReplyDeleteAt least he will not make the same mistake again ;-)
But did he clobber the mouse first, or miss it?
ReplyDeleteJinksy,
ReplyDeleteHavant a clue ;-)
Erm the shotgun/mouse . . definitely a Darwin Award winner there.
ReplyDeleteI was just saying earlier this afternoon that I was going to get the shotgun out to shoot some rats in the attic of a local thrift store run by a non-profit I volunteer for.
ReplyDeleteYour story has given me second thoughts.
Baino,
ReplyDeleteI felt there was some justice in it ;-)
IT,
Glad to be of service. There are some lessons to be learned here indeed ;-)
The best story I ever heard involving mice was about a cats' shelter that got burnt to the ground (with the cats in it) due to mice eating the electricity cables and causing the fire! It felt very 'deserved' to me. I could just imagine the head mouse saying to a paper: "Well, we had to sacrifice some of our own, but two hundred of our greatest enemies are now dust! A great result..."
ReplyDeleteThey say Dentists have the highest suicide rate among professions due to the increased stress from causing people pain all day. Perhaps that's why he was insensitive enough to want to smash the poor little mouse with a gun. And using a gun? Come on. You're a dentist! Hopefully that means that you had enough brains to go to some sort of medical school. I guess book smarts don't necessarily come with common sense. I mean.. couldn't he have used a broom or a brick? Was the gun that close to hand that he grabbed it without thinking? If so, why was he keeping a loaded shotgun by the door? Was he expecting company? Did he do a root-canal for someone in the mafia and tick them off?
ReplyDeleteI have a similar stupid-person themed article on my blog today. What's the world coming to? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't take the time to go hunting a mouse for certain death. I have bigger fish to fry.
Everyone already said the things I wanted to say so I'll just *wave* :)
ReplyDeletea mouse trap, poison or a cat are pretty effective in ridding mice away
ReplyDeletemost folks don't use guns, evem butts of loaded guns, what a terrible way for someone to go
OMG,...lol..(but not really)...
ReplyDeleteDid that actually happen??...
The mouse story is not funny, but it is hilarious. Thank you for sharing the news from your country.
ReplyDelete