1998 Darwin Awards

Don't Chute the Messenger

1998 Darwin Award Winner
Confirmed True by Darwin

(21 March 1998, Chicago) Hyatt Regency Hotel workers discovered the remains of an ill-fated co-worker when they noticed that no laundry was reaching the bottom of the 20-story laundry chute on Saturday morning. The man, wrapped in 100 pounds of laundry, was found sliding slowly down the chute by a hotel employee who saw his feet through an opening.

Jian, a 67-year-old housekeeper at the hotel, was familiar with the 2½ foot square opening the East Tower of the hotel, and it is tempting to speculate why he lost his footing and plunged into the waist-high laundry opening in the East Tower. Was he peeking into the chute to drop laundry onto the head of a co-worker below? Was he trying to encourage a recalcitrant bundle of sheets to slide further down the chute? Did his own clothing seem so dirty that he suddenly realized it needed a good cleaning?

The man was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Saturday.

Previous Next