California man falls through toilet into sewage tank in failed attempt to retrieve prized sunglasses

How far would you go for a pair of sunglasses? Well, one man in California was left in need of urgent rescue after an attempt to retrieve a pair that had tumbled down a toilet left him in an unpleasantly sticky situation.

As reported by KTLA, an anonymous individual at Camp Edison near Shaver Lake in the Sierra Nevada foothills (around 50 miles northeast of Fresno) had a very bad day. Firstly, while using the bathroom, his sunglasses accidentally fell into the toilet.

For many, this would be a cue to simply buy a new pair of sunglasses. But this individual wouldn’t give up on his possessions so easily. It’s unclear precisely what happened next, though the individual appears to have somehow fallen through the toilet itself and down into the chemical sewage storage tank below it.

Those must have been some really nice sunglasses

Those in the vicinity were alerted by his wails and called 911, with first responders soon arriving to assess a potentially deadly and objectively stinky situation. As per the NY Post, a language hurdle complicated matters, but a Spanish translator stepped in, and it was soon determined that “the subject had fallen into the chemical storage tank.”

First responders, law enforcement, and campground staff combined their smarts to figure out a way to yank the man out of the sewage tank. Thankfully, he suffered no serious injuries during his disgusting ordeal, and was treated on site with a thorough hose-down to “decontaminate him” as best they could.

KTLA reports Sergeant Chris Tullus as estimating that the individual was stuck in the tank for around 10-15 minutes, but confirms he was able to walk away and that “he’ll be ok.”

But, in a tragic twist, the ultimate fate of the sunglasses remains unknown. The LA Times asked the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office for an update on their status, but was told that they believe the eyewear that sparked this nightmare has been “lost to the vault”.

However, another recent incident on the other side of the globe proves things could have been worse. A poor woman visiting the Henbury Meteorites Conservation Zone used a “drop dunny” only for it to completely collapse and send her plummeting into a pit “full to waist-height with excrement and urine.” It took three long hours for rescue to arrive, when she was yanked out with a rope and rushed to the hospital.