"When the resident realized a person was in the chimney, he extinguished the fire."
Firefighters smashed through the fireplace brick to retrieve 19-year-old Cody Caldwell, dead of smoke inhalation and burns, they say.
The top-rated comment at the link is: "Stop making excuses for this ignorant criminal! He got what he deserved, and the planet is better off with one less piece of dung on it!"
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It is sad that he will mot get the chance to turn his life around. Teenagers' stupid criminal acts becoming fatal aren't something to gloat about. Like Michael Brown attacking a police officer, Cody Caldwell's stupidity proved fatal.
He should have known better.
A terrible way to go. The homeowner should be sued by the victim's family for the attractive nuisance posed by his chimney.
Does it ever work to break into a house through the chimney?
"Ann Althouse said...
Does it ever work to break into a house through the chimney?"
His parents failed him. If they had only told him that Santa Claus was a myth...
I'm a racist, I admit it. Given that it was Fresno, I read the article expecting the victim to be Jose Garcia, not Cody Caldwell...
He should have watched "Gremlins".
"Stupid people die in stupid ways"
Does it ever work to break into a house through the chimney?
For the vast majority of houses the chimney is way too small to even make the attempt. It would need to be an older, larger house, and even then you will likely have problems when you get down to the smoke shelf / damper.
Rule for chimney entrance: If you're not a sweep, you must be a creep.
A human sacrifice by whole burnt offering does ring a few DNA notes persisting from the old days of ritual religion. We modern thinkers would only use flame throwers and napalm.
I had some trouble believing this. Interesting cover for a murder.
I feel bad for the homeowner. House damaged and the trauma of burning someone to death inadvertently. How was the homeowner supposed to know some criminal fool was stuck in his chimney?
I don't support the top-rated comment. Basically the poor bastard was roasted to death, and I wouldn't wish that sort of demise on the worst serial killer in history, much less a kid learning that burglary is just as hard a way to make a living as cleaning sewers. (And there's less risk of being shot by a homeowner or anally raped during a long prison sentence -- not to mention no risk of being roasted to death.)
There are times back before I retired when dealing with the company's bureaucracy made me wish I had cleaned sewers for a living instead -- less sh*t to deal with, plus all you can eat.
Like a stopped clock, even ARM is right once in a while. Didn't the kid call out when the homeowner started setting and lighting the fire? If he refused to confess I think that the homeowner would win a murder trial on grounds of reasonable doubt, but there's a chance he killed the poor kid thinking he was going to teach him a nasty lesson.
"I had some trouble believing this. Interesting cover for a murder."
That was my reaction too.
"Didn't the kid call out when the homeowner started setting and lighting the fire?"
That's what I thought too.
"Ann Althouse said...
"I had some trouble believing this. Interesting cover for a murder."
That was my reaction too.
"Didn't the kid call out when the homeowner started setting and lighting the fire?"
That's what I thought too."
He could have been sleeping, or unconscious.
And yet, I can't picture getting someone into the chimney so you could torture-murder him.
I can only picture this hypothetical (and I know nothing about what happened in the real case): A homeowner realizes an intruder has gotten stuck in the chimney and decides to smoke him out or scare him or even injure him by lighting a fire. The intruder screams horribly, so the homeowner decides to extinguish the fire and call for him.
"I can only picture this hypothetical (and I know nothing about what happened in the real case): A homeowner realizes an intruder has gotten stuck in the chimney and decides to smoke him out or scare him or even injure him by lighting a fire. The intruder screams horribly, so the homeowner decides to extinguish the fire and call for him."
Or the kid thought nothing bad would happen right up to the end. Unlikely that decision making was a strength of his.
I recall a decade+ ago in Madison that a skeleton was found in a chimney somewhere west of Campus.
Unsolved to this day.
What wine goes with smoked burglar?
@Althouse, your hypothetical is the scenario I had in mind. Under the circumstances we'll have to take the homeowners word, but -- pun intended -- the whole thing is smoky.
Blogger Ann Althouse said...
Does it ever work to break into a house through the chimney?
Perhaps, but then we may not hear about those cases. You might find the house was robbed but not find evidence how the burglar got inside. It's a risky way to break into a house. I remember this story from earlier this year where they found the body of a teenaged boy stuck in a chimney in Colorado. He'd been missing for 7 years. No one knew where he was until they demolished the cabin that he attempted to break into.
There's also this story from 2011 of a body found in a chimney. The man had been missing for 27 years. Another story from England had a similar outcome. A web search on "chimney body" returns about 150,000 links, so this may not be all that uncommon.
Oh a happier note, there's this video of a news story about a teenaged boy who was locked out of his own house. He tried to break in through the chimney and got stuck. Fortunately, he was able to call 911 and was rescued.
Your hypothetical - that they knew he was there and were trying to teach him a lesson - doesn't rise to the level of "murder." Manslaughter at best, I would think.
Have we checked the police log?
I like how the female TV news anchor at the link pronounces chim-in-ey like Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins".
Chim Chim Cher-ee
Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky, as lucky can be
Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off when I shakes 'ands with you
Or blow me a kiss and that's lucky too
Michael McClain said...
What wine goes with smoked burglar?
11/30/15, 8:42 AM'
Nasty but funny.
ARM, while you might be right more likely the owner didn't know and the burglar was afraid of making sounds (fear of arrest or getting shot) until he felt the heat and then it was too late.
Larry J said...
A web search on "chimney body" returns about 150,000 links, so this may not be all that uncommon.
Actually 315 results.
"... the male homeowner..." -- I'm glad the writer informed us that the homeowner has a penis and testicles.
Drugs/alcohol and a dare may be part of the story.
Ferd: perhaps if you honestly searched using Larry J's criterion you would have similar results to his. I binged Larry J's search term and got 2,150,000 hits.
" extinguish the fire and call for him"
I meant: call for help.
"@Althouse, your hypothetical is the scenario I had in mind. Under the circumstances we'll have to take the homeowners word, but -- pun intended -- the whole thing is smoky."
Here's why I think the hypothetical is unlikely. If I knew there was someone stuck in the chimney, I wouldn't want to start a fire, because the house would fill up with smoke and if the guy started cooking or burning or whatever, the tainting of my house would get even worse. It's bad to have an intruder, but a fire would cause more toxic intrusion, the smells and the particulates.
But I must stress that I'm a female homeowner.
"Or the kid thought nothing bad would happen right up to the end. Unlikely that decision making was a strength of his."
He might have been unconscious from the fall and the fire woke him up.
"Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky, as lucky can be"
Compare:
"The least envied child workers of all were the chimney sweeps, or “climbing boys,” as they were also known. They started earlier, worked harder, and died sooner than any other group. Most began their short careers at about the age of five, though the records show one boy articled into the profession at three and a half, an age at which even the simplest tasks must have been confusing and frightening. Little boys were needed because flues were tight and often wildly convoluted. “Some,” writes John Waller in The Real Oliver Twist, “turned at right angles, ran horizontally or diagonally, even zig-zagged or plunged downward before rising up toward the stack. One London chimney switched direction an amazing fourteen times.” It was brutal work. One method of encouraging the boys not to slack was to light a pile of straw in the grate to send a blast of heat up the chimney after them. Many climbing boys ended their short careers stooped and ruined by the age of eleven or twelve. Cancer of the scrotum seems to have been a particular occupational hazard."
Bryson, Bill (2010-10-05). At Home: A Short History of Private Life (pp. 410-411). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
Sharc.
But of course.
And, if he had lived but had sustained serious injuries, his lawyer would’ve argued that he was playing Santa Claus & sued the homeowner for $zillion. And a stupid California jury might have given him that sum to stick it to the White privilege people who can afford homes with big chimneys.
But I must stress that I'm a female homeowner.
The homeowner in this case, being a mere male and therefore not in the same league as someone blessed with a vagina, as you are, may not have appreciated how much smoke intrusion he'd have to deal with when he laid and lit the fire in expectation of teaching the kid a lesson. People make mistakes.
Blogger cubanbob said...
Michael McClain said...
What wine goes with smoked burglar?
11/30/15, 8:42 AM'
Nasty but funny.
11/30/15, 9:43 AM
Couldn't resist. One of my many faults.
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