CommPost

Friday, August 24, 2007

ALMOST AS GOOD AS KEN (below)

Tales of the ODD from today's globe and mail.

"Fleeing hornet attack, man falls off roof, dies
Canadian Press

August 24, 2007 at 3:59 AM EDT

MILTON, ONT. — A guitarist who once played in a band with Stompin' Tom Connors has died after tumbling off the roof of his apartment building while being pursued by a swarm of angry hornets.

Wayne Chapman, 52, had been enjoying a drink with a friend on the roof Wednesday when he felt something sting him, Detective Sergeant Murray Drinkwalter said.
He got a fly swatter and started flailing at some yellow jackets that were buzzing around the fire escape of the three-storey rooming house in the southern Ontario community.

As he was retreating from the wasp attack, Mr. Chapman lost his footing, fell over the side of the building and landed on the gravel driveway about six metres below.
He never regained consciousness and died of cardiac arrest a few hours later in a Toronto hospital.

"It was a case of a couple of buddies having cocktails on the rooftop and it took a turn for the tragic," said Det. Sgt. Drinkwalter, a Halton police spokesman.
Ken Murray, 66, who manages the 15-room boarding house, said he had repeatedly warned Mr. Chapman to keep off the roof.

He also said he told him to stop swatting at the hornets, which had a nest near the top of the roof near the fire escape.

But Mr. Chapman, who lived by himself and worked as a janitor in the Milton industrial park, would often climb through his back window to get to the flat roof to socialize, play his guitar and cool off on warm nights.

Mr. Chapman still had an old vinyl album with his picture on the jacket beside Stompin' Tom.
Friends said it was one of his most cherished possessions, along with a battered guitar.
"I think he'd be happy if we buried him with his old guitar," Gordon Brown said.

It was the second bizarre insect attack in Halton this week.

On Tuesday night, a Burlington, Ont., man inadvertently set his house on fire when he flicked
his cigarette at bees swarming around him on his back porch. The embers ignited some dry material in the eaves and started a fire that caused about $60,000 damage."

Cheers,

P

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