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Oops! The Silly Mistakes Thread

Greek authorities arrested a pair of Albanians for drug trafficking, only to find out the suspicious powdery substance in their possession was crystallized wood glue.
Glue gaffe: 2 men freed in Greece after drug bust mix-up

A public prosecutor in northern Greece cleared two men arrested on drug trafficking charges after authorities acknowledged that a white substance seized in their car was adhesive powder and not cocaine ...

A state lab where the powder was analyzed said the substance seized by police, initially believed to be cocaine, was in fact wood glue powder that had partially crystallized due to the high temperature inside the car’s trunk.

Police detained the men for two days, while authorities confiscated their cellphones, the vehicle and 2,900 euros ($3,450) as alleged profits from drug trafficking. ...
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SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/europe-greece-oddities-e4b87248bd5d7ad075c6b8cb204313d5
 
When collecting corpses it's a good idea to turn off the radio in the private ambulance, in case it happens to play "Another One Bites The Dust."
Embarrassing moment ambulance waiting to collect corpses from funeral parlour blasts out Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust' in front of stunned pedestrians

A funeral company has apologised after the vehicle it uses to transport corpses was filmed blasting out the hit Queen song Another One Bites the Dust.

In a severe case of unfortunate timing, the 1987 hit happened to be playing on the radio of the silver private ambulance while it was parked outside a funeral parlour on the Isle of Wight on Wednesday.

The irony of the moment was not lost on passersby, who filmed the vehicle as it played the Freddie Mercury-lead classic while one of its doors was left wide open. ...

The dark comedy moment happened outside the Co-op Funeralcare in Shanklin. ...
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FULL STORY (With Video): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ral-parlour-blasts-Queens-One-Bites-Dust.html
 
Bigphoot2 said:
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Reminds of one of the 1970s 'modern' silent movies starring the likes of Eric Sykes and Marty Feldman.
The protagonists go on holiday and see a couple of fellow passengers lie on the beach in a close embrace.

When they get up one of the man's hands is outlined in the tan on his girlfriend's back. :chuckle:
 
The problem with Staying Alive is resisting the urge to stop the CPR and do the dance routine.
 
Or if you only ever heard the single played at the wrong speed.
 
escargot said:
That's taught on first aid courses, along with the Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive. :chuckle:
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There's a film called Undine where the title character almost drowns and her boyfriend revives her to Stayin' Alive. Bizarrely this really turns her on and she demands he do it again immediately. He suggests waiting till they get home!
 
Luckily for this guy who did home cleaning as a second job, his screw-up in recording a new client's address resulted in nothing worse than a ridiculous situation. On the other hand, the social media exposure he got from this mistake has brought him a new popular business identity and people wanting to retain his services.
‘Cleaning fairy’ went to the wrong N.J. house. His TikTok rant explains hilarious mixup.

When Beth Motzel’s husband returned home from work one day last month, he was shocked.

The Cherry Hill townhome that the couple had been renovating was messy when he left in the morning, but spotlessly clean when he opened the front door in the evening. No dust, dirt or grime.

“(My husband) called me in a panic and he said that someone was here and they cleaned the whole place,” Beth Motzel said, noting the suspicion in his voice.

Whoever tidied up made a clean getaway, but they left a note. ...

On the piece of paper was a sentence in Sharpie explaining that someone’s cleaner went to the wrong address, along with a name and phone number.

That cleaner was Barrington resident Louis Angelino III, whose TikTok posted June 28 explaining the hilarious mix-up has garnered more than 600,000 views. Commenters dubbed Angelino III South Jersey’s ‘cleaning fairy’— and many are begging him to break into their homes too.

Here’s how Angelino ended up in the unusual situation.

The 27-year-old works at a Joe Canal’s liquor store, but also cleans his friends’ houses on the side for some extra cash. One day last month, he got a new client ... It was a friend’s coworker, who texted Angelino his Cherry Hill address and told him he left a key under a mat to get inside.

But Angelino accidentally jotted down the wrong address. He had the correct street, but the house number was off by one digit.

... Angelino pulled up to a townhome that had a key under the mat, and assumed he was at the correct place. The right apartment was a short, two-minute drive away. ...

He spent about two-and-a-half hours scrubbing the stove and Swiffer-ing the floors. Once Angelino was done, he started playing with two cats in the apartment and got ready to leave.

That’s when Angelino’s friend called asking if he ever came to clean the apartment. Moments later, panic set in as he realized his mistake.

“I said ‘I’m literally in your living room right now playing with your cats and waiting for you to walk in,’ and he was like ‘Louis, I don’t have any cats,’” Angelino recalled. “In that moment, I froze. My heart dropped. I was just like, ‘Where am I right now? What is going on?’” ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.nj.com/news/2021/07/cle...his-tiktok-rant-explains-hilarious-mixup.html
 
Naughty_Felid said:
If it's a private funeral firm and the passengers are dead then why is it an "ambulance"?
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Ambulance, from Latin ambulare meaning "to walk". Ambulance was first used in connection with the military, referring not only to barrows and carts used to transport the wounded, but also to places where treatment was given: what we might now call "field hospitals".

In the early years, death was a likely outcome of any serious injury and ambulances were also used to convey the dead. Indeed, hearses were sometimes adapted as ambulances, and the two roles were as closely linked as barbers and surgeons.

Today, we also use the word ambulance for any vehicle designed to transport the sick, frail or disabled, for example to routine hospital appointments.

In the context of a modern western funeral, a non-emergency ambulance without the hi-viz markings and flashing lights may be used for the routine task of transporting the deceased between places such as the hospital mortuary and the funeral parlour. It performs a different role from the hearse which carries the deceased to the funeral. The ambulance does the practical, pragmatic bits, but the journey in the hearse is part of the funeral ritual.
 
Naughty_Felid said:
If it's a private funeral firm and the passengers are dead then why is it an "ambulance"?
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I'm not sure of the answer to that.
It could be that they have misunderstood the meaning or derivation of the word 'Ambulance' (which actually derives from the French words for a mobile field-hospital).
Or maybe there isn't a word for a vehicle for transporting corpses around?
 
Relevant UK laws define an ambulance as a vehicle permanently equipped to secure and transport a person in a recumbent position. This means a vehicle thus equipped would be practical for transporting both the quick and the dead.

Hearses (nowadays) are ceremonial vehicles designed for transporting caskets for funerals. The equipment for doing this can be quite different from the equipment in an ambulance.

According to these excerpted comments from Reddit "private ambulance" in UK parlance can refer (however informally) to a vehicle used by a funeral / mortuary service to transport bodies to the funeral home.

What are these "private ambulances" seen in the UK?

UK paramedic here. I believe they are used by funeral homes/coroners office to transport dead bodies, hence the lack of livery and lights.

It's a funeral home ambulance. Explicitly identified as an ambulance for tax/insurance reasons. Very common in the UK.

In the UK classing a vehicle as an ambulance has financial benefits so that's why a lot of funeral home retrieval vehicles identify as such.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/ems/comments/2uiswn

I wasn't able to find any documentation clarifying whether "private ambulances" (in the sense above) are necessarily subject to being "ambulances" as defined for medical transport purposes.
 
I think if I was feeling a bit poorly, wanted to go to hospital, and a funeral directors turned up for me, I'd be quite concerned.
It's akin to the old westerns in which the undertaker would arrive before a gunfight and get his tape measure out.
 
I read the biography of a women whose father set up a funeral business in some small town in the States in the sixties. At one point in the book, a local woman hires the funeral director to take her to a routine hospital appointment in the hearse. I thought that a little strange when I read it. Top book by the way, if only I could remember the title.
 
Herr Cloaca said:
I read the biography of a women whose father set up a funeral business in some small town in the States in the sixties. At one point in the book, a local woman hires the funeral director to take her to a routine hospital appointment in the hearse. ...
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In American small towns as recently as the Fifties / Sixties it was common for funeral homes to operate the local ambulance service. In those days small town and rural ambulances were operated by private companies or hospitals. From the Sixties onward there was a trend toward publicly-sponsored local ambulance services administered by municipal or non-governmental organizations.

In some cases hearses did dual-duty as ambulances. In the postwar era up through the Sixties civilian ambulances were typically custom-built on a commercial car chassis - essentially a variation on the existing motorcar hearses.

There were also combination cars designed to serve as either an ambulance or a hearse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_car

In yet other cases the funeral home had separate cars for the two purposes.

Car-based ambulances were configured differently from hearses. They usually had raised roofs, warning lights / siren(s), different interior equipment, and a white or bright-colored paint scheme for visibility.

Beginning with the Seventies the car-based ambulances were replaced by van- or truck-based ambulances so as to comply with more elaborate standards for medical transport vehicles. It was during this period that the EMS concept we know today emerged and became the primary model for medical emergency service.
 
EnolaGaia said:
In some cases hearses did dual-duty as ambulances. In the postwar era up through the Sixties civilian ambulances were typically custom-built on a commercial car chassis - essentially a variation on the existing motorcar hearses.
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This reminded me of this photo of a wartime military ambulace i saw a while back.

VWKaefer_a.jpg
 
kesavaross said:
Long time lurker here.

Slightly off topic.... A hearse is insured as a taxi. In terms of vehicle insurance the law doesn't distinguish between the living and the dead.
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I would have thought there would be less risk of causing life-changing injury to the passenger. Although that's probably a matter of premiums, rather than law.
 
Krepostnoi said:
I would have thought there would be less risk of causing life-changing injury to the passenger. Although that's probably a matter of premiums, rather than law.
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The vehicle insurance costs the same give or take a little based on mileage, etc. It's the cost of the Public Liability insurance that are different.

I only know this as I once bought an ex hearse for use as a work vehicle. I couldn't change the purpose for which the vehicle was built so I had to get specialist insurance which covered change of use of the vehicle but it still had 'conveyance of passengers for profit or otherwise' on the insurance certificate.
 
EnolaGaia said:
Luckily for this guy who did home cleaning as a second job, his screw-up in recording a new client's address resulted in nothing worse than a ridiculous situation. On the other hand, the social media exposure he got from this mistake has brought him a new popular business identity and people wanting to retain his services.

FULL STORY: https://www.nj.com/news/2021/07/cle...his-tiktok-rant-explains-hilarious-mixup.html
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I will never leave an extra key to my place under the door mat. Never!
 
EnolaGaia said:
Relevant UK laws define an ambulance as a vehicle permanently equipped to secure and transport a person in a recumbent position. This means a vehicle thus equipped would be practical for transporting both the quick and the dead.

Hearses (nowadays) are ceremonial vehicles designed for transporting caskets for funerals. The equipment for doing this can be quite different from the equipment in an ambulance.

According to these excerpted comments from Reddit "private ambulance" in UK parlance can refer (however informally) to a vehicle used by a funeral / mortuary service to transport bodies to the funeral home.


https://www.reddit.com/r/ems/comments/2uiswn

I wasn't able to find any documentation clarifying whether "private ambulances" (in the sense above) are necessarily subject to being "ambulances" as defined for medical transport purposes.
Click to expand...

The 'private ambulances', usually Transit-type black panel vans, are owned by funeral companies. The company name is discreetly displayed on the back.

They are used for collecting clients from where they've died such as hospitals and care homes and also from crime scenes.
In a TV report about the finding of the body of a high-profile murder victim, as with the Soham girls, you might spot the undertaker's black van parked nearby.

As undertakers' premises may have limited mortuary space they can rent more from specialist companies. Private ambulances are used to transport clients to and from the larger mortuaries.

Where I live, we see them coming and going a lot.
 
I was going to try and make some kind of joke about 'The O'Wicker Man' but couldn't think of one.
 
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