Bulldozers. Mankind has harnessed their power for the forces of good, but occasionally they escape man’s feeble grasp and wreak havoc. Such was the case in Odessa, Texas last week when an unmanned bulldozer wrecked two mobile homes and severely wounded a third dwelling that doesn’t have axles under it. Police suspect that someone fired up the machine and let it loose. This gives us faith in the Odessa police because if they believed that the machine started itself and took aim and these three homes, we’d suggest they turn in their badges.
This certainly ranks high on the “freakish ways to lose your house” scale, and it was good that no one was killed when their houses were smooshed by the ‘dozer. There were some fairly amazing quotes in the story that we found on the ABC news site. Best of which was from Mary Chavez who was having a birthday in the backyard of her home when the land shark bulldozer approached. Chaves told the reporter, “When we saw it, no one suspected it was without a driver, until we heard a man yelling, ‘Hurry it doesn’t have a driver!” They evacuated the backyard and ran to the front of the house, apparently unaware that the bulldozer was capable of squashing the house like a Japanese movie prop during a battle between Mothra and Godzilla.
Luckily a neighbor was able to jump into the machine after smashing out a window. Unfortunately that was after the bulldozer had eaten it’s way half way though another house.
Pretty amazing the ‘dozer made it a mile without contacting anything to knock it off course on the way toward the nieghborhood. The article did mention that a couple barb wire fenced were torn down during the voyage. Hopefully police find the jerk who got the bulldozer rolling and set it loose. They should tie him to a post and start a machine a mile away aimed right at him. Either that or shoot ’em. You decide.
