Last updated at 13:55, Monday, 06 August 2012

The Darwin Awards is a website which celebrates gross stupidity by humankind.

It features hundreds of examples of idiocy from around the world.

There is a section called Urban Legends. This is devoted to stories which are so ridiculous that they could not possibly be true.

One of these bizarre tales is from Cumbria.

And it is true.

The story dates from 2000 and concerns two items which are rarely mentioned together: A fox and a compressed air nozzle.

A man walked onto the forecourt of Aspatria garage CH Over and Sons with a fox under his arm.

He inserted the nozzle between the fur and the skin, and inflated the animal.

The fox was already dead.

But the national press reported that it had been alive, prompting angry phone calls to the garage.

A spokeswoman said she feared animal rights activists might take action.

“We had to call in more members of staff because we were too frightened to work alone,” she said.

So why did someone decide to inflate a fox?

Police believed he was trying to loosen the pelt to perform DIY taxidermy.

They were satisfied no criminal offence had taken place but they spoke to the man and warned him of the “inadvisability” of inflating animals in a public place.

Which does not mean it’s fine to do it behind closed doors.

Another inaccuracy in the national reports was the claim that the creature exploded.

Thankfully it did not. Which means this is one fox which did not go “Boom! Boom!”

First published at 11:30, Monday, 06 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk