In perhaps the most idiotic act of the month, a Georgia man who was videotaped shooting at a lawnmower loaded to the hilt with explosives has succeeded in losing a leg to the daring act.
The man, 32-year-old David Pressley, was shooting at a mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, Tannerite, in the woods and according to authorities:
“He had possibly blown his legs off from the explosion.”
Walton County Sheriff’s Department received a 911 call about an explosion on Saturday where David, who wanted to impress his friends, got hit by shrapnel from his target practice: the lawnmower.
His friends, seeing the almost unbelievable result of the explosion, did their best to make David comfortable by fashioning a tourniquet for his leg, then helped him into the front seat of a vehicle and drove him to a nearby road, where the EMS met them.
According to the Sheriff’s department:
“EMS advised David was missing his left leg below the knee”
Pressley was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where he has since been recuperating, less a leg, but with his life still intact.
To underline the outright stupidity with which this incident played out, one of his friends told investigators they put three pounds of Tannerite into an old lawn mower just to hear it go boom!
The utter absurdity of the whole situation becomes much clear when David, dressed in what appeared to be tactical vest, began firing a semi-automatic rifle at the lawn mower, getting off more than 20 shots. The last shot proved to be fatal as the lawnmower explodes when hit by that last one, and shrapnel can be seen flying in all directions.
Reality dawned when David yelled:
“I blew my leg off!”
And a friend responded:
“Call an ambulance! Call an ambulance!”
While Tannerite is gaining popularity, as evidenced by the number of videos depicting its use, the danger is still pretty much evident.
Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman says:
“We get a lot of calls about Tannerite. It can be extremely dangerous if it is not used correctly,”
Tannerite is an explosive that goes boom! when it comes in contact with a high-velocity bullet. It can only to be shot at from long distances, and David Pressley apparently got too close.
I doubt if David will ever want to play ‘shoot the Tannerite-filled lawnmower’ again.
The lesson: don’t play with explosives; they’re not fireworks!
Watch video below:
Featured Image Credit: WXIA TV via Detroit Free Press
