July 15, 2001

7:39 PM

Your worst nightmare come true."Bound hand and foot and gagged, a 27-year-old English woman tourist cowered for seven hours in the vast loneliness of the Northern Territory night, stalked by a gunman who is feared to have killed her companion."
posted by Neale (22 comments total)

Wow, when I read the headline I thought a giant telepathic hampster was discovered somewhere in Brooklyn.
This is really scary, too, though.
posted by Doug at 7:54 PM on July 15, 2001

*Ding* We have a winner!



...and I have coffee up my nose.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:25 PM on July 15, 2001

oof, and my girlfriend and i are planning an aussie camping vacation. kinda having second thoughts about that now. but then there's the rugby, i can't miss the rugby.

as a related aside, congrats to the wallabies for kicking some lions butt this weekend. i know nobody knows what i've talking about but i don't care, i just had ovaltine!
posted by cheesebot at 9:00 PM on July 15, 2001

That's rotten. Having just come back from a camping trip, this really upsets me. Glad she's ok, hope they catch the guy who did it.

Apparently he's never played knifey-spooney with an Englishwoman before (they're wiley and tough).
posted by GriffX at 9:11 PM on July 15, 2001

Worst nightmare? Try this.

Um...sorry. Seriously, something like this terrifies me. Hence my refusal to ever go "camping" or otherwise "vacation" or "rough it" anywhere that is more than a few miles from a Kwik-E-Mart, a car dealership, a major grocery store, cable television, and a net connection. You know, the necessities.
posted by davidmsc at 9:16 PM on July 15, 2001

So after reading this story, I received an IM from a friend. Turns out last night, his uncle, who lives in vermont, heard a frantic knocking at his door. A half naked woman was screaming, "They're dead! They're all dead!" From what the uncle could gather, a stranger came to her door, tried to sell the family a gun (this was pretty late at night, mind you) and when they declined, he opened fire. Four people were killed.
This was in backwoods Vermont. The family had plenty of guns.
The only consolation is that these things are rare. You could go camping every day, in the most secluded area, and something like this will probably never happen to you. (Although I'm not sure these people were camping, were they?) But one day, you may win the shit-lottery of life, and get blown away by a 13 year old looking for money to buy a Razorscooter. It's all random.
posted by Doug at 10:03 PM on July 15, 2001

Thanks Doug ~(resumes drinking after 13 year hiatus)~
Thanks a lot.
posted by dong_resin at 10:23 PM on July 15, 2001

I'm just glad I'm not the only one who dreams of telepathic hamsters.
posted by Optamystic at 12:04 AM on July 16, 2001

It happens all the time here.

My advice:

Do not visit Australia. Repeat. Do not visit Australia.
posted by lagado at 12:08 AM on July 16, 2001

Dammit, lagado -- if I don't visit Australia, where the hell else am I going to buy videos of SeaChange?
posted by lia at 12:18 AM on July 16, 2001

lia, I'm serious about this one:

Do not watch Australian soap. Repeat. Do not watch Australian soap.

I've seen what it can do, I've lost several friends that way. What starts off as a mild interest in quaint, slightly quirky and heart warming TV programs quickly develops into addiction and then a chronic and debilitating illness. It's really quite tragic.
posted by lagado at 4:50 AM on July 16, 2001

I understand that this may seem insensitive, and I have no wish to disrespect the victims of this crime, but something about the reports seem not quite right to me.

It's just aguy instinct but I can't believe we're getting the full story. It's just too strange: I'd be surprised if more does not surface over time.
posted by tobyslater at 5:26 AM on July 16, 2001

You see Doug, that's why I never buy tickets for the shit-lottery of life.
posted by shinji_ikari at 5:28 AM on July 16, 2001

tobyslater: I thought the same thing, and hope I'm wrong, but either way someone is dead.
posted by mecran01 at 6:15 AM on July 16, 2001

It's a horrible thing to have happened, but I have to commend the reporting of the story. All the facts, straightforward and informative. I'm not sure I needed the license plate of the vehicle that was attacked, but I feel like I know as much as there is to know about the incident. If only the American media were able to report as well..
posted by fnirt at 6:50 AM on July 16, 2001

> Turns out last night, his uncle, who lives in vermont,
> heard a frantic knocking at his door.

Yikes.
posted by pracowity at 6:59 AM on July 16, 2001

pracowity : Yikes.

sgt dane shortsleeve, melissa bishop, and george weatherwax? and the Bishops "were distributors of Japanese magnetic healing products".

I mean no disrespect, but the names and some of the details read like beautifully crafted fiction. too bad it isn't.
posted by rebeccablood at 7:10 AM on July 16, 2001

>Wow, when I read the headline I thought a giant telepathic
>hampster was discovered somewhere in Brooklyn.
>This is really scary, too, though.

Dimmesdale...
Dimmesdale...
posted by mitchel at 8:48 AM on July 16, 2001

all the more reason to take you bull-pup camping.
posted by clavdivs at 9:25 AM on July 16, 2001

It's weird that you found that, pracowity, cause I thought I made the whole thing up. Muhahahaha.

Actually, it's weird to have heard something through a friend that sounds beyond possibility, and have it completely confirmed by a newspaper. A small part of me hoped my friends uncle was making the whole thing up.

Crazy stuff.
posted by Doug at 2:52 PM on July 16, 2001

About the writing of the news report (the Aussie one, not the Vermont one), the best line is the last: "In the next few kilometres, the killer was waiting."

A little over the top... almost thriller-like. Crazy.
posted by silusGROK at 3:49 PM on July 16, 2001

as the gunman hunted her with a torch and a red heeler dog

reminds me of this guy.
posted by culberjo at 10:55 PM on July 16, 2001