Is there no limit to human stupidity?

[Margaid]

I remember a friend who was stationed at Culdrose and one summer day they rescued the same child in a rugby dinghy 3 times, the third time they punctured the dinghy and got an angry letter from the child's father wanting the money for the dinghy, they replied with a letter saying he could have the money if he paid the cost of the rescues, which was about £120, 000, they factored in aviation fuel man hours, maintenance costs etc
They never heard anymore

Love it, love it love it !!! There should be more of that.

Maybe the rescue services should start charging when they're called out and find the rescued has done something really stupid - like mountaineering in trainers or surfing during a storm. It isn't only the risk to the rescuers but it may mean they are unable to help someone in distress simply because of an accident.

 

[bigyetiman]

Agree with that totally, it is the Darwin law of removing the totally stupid from the gene pool. I do remember seeing a rescue programme about the RNLI and they were faced with just that scenario, rescuing a fisherman who had been taken ill on a trawler, or a windsurfer who was lost somewhere having ignored warnings about the weather. The fisherman was rescued 1st, then a fruitless search by the lifeboat, and helicopter as windsurfer had got to next bay, packed up, gone home and not bothered to tell his fellow windsurfers back at the beach shack

 

[Icemaiden]

If it's any tiny shred of consolation, the mindless idiot surfer was taken to the A&E unit in Ashford, Kent, to be checked over. It's a hell of a long trip home from there to Hastings in a soggy wetsuit! Personally I hope they made him walk home...

 

[Margaid]

And the Ben Nevis idiots do seem to have made SOME contribution by way of thanks ...