2009 Darwin Award Winner

A story in the Chicago Tribune, by James Janega, recounts the events that led to the awarding of the 2009 Darwin Award, the award given to someone for removing themselves from the gene pool in, usually, amazingly stupid fashion. He writes:

The winner for 2009 was a rare Double Darwin, says Wendy Northcutt of the Darwin Awards, and is awarded for a crime gone awry in Belgium.

On Sept. 26, a pair of would-be thieves hatched a plan to withdraw cash from an ATM machine by using dynamite.

"They overestimated the quantity of dynamite needed for the explosion," the citation notes dryly. "The blast demolished the building the bank was housed in."

Rescue workers rushed one bomb burglar to the hospital, where he died on arrival.

They assumed the second got away until finding his body in the rubble hours later. No one else was in the building at the time of the blast.

For more unnatural negative selection, go here. The story about the moped driver is as much tragic as mind-bogglingly stupid.

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