Idiots In New York...

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Police Say Man Stealing Gas Used Lighter Fri Jun 3, 8:14 AM ET


THURMAN, N.Y. - A tip for would-be gasoline thieves. When stealing gas in the dark, don't use a lighter to see how you're doing. Police in Warren County say that's what Glen Germain Junior did when he was siphoning gas from a dump truck at a business in the Adirondacks last month.

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The sheriff's department says Germain was transferring the fuel from the truck to a gas can when he used a lighter to see how full the container had become.

That sparked a fire that caused minor burns to his face and hands. The fire spread to a nearby forklift, which was destroyed in the blaze.

Germain has been charged with petit larceny and criminal mischief.

The arrest was Germain's second in a month for stealing gasoline from businesses in the town of Thurman, about 65 miles north of Albany.

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...and a little further south.

Man Sues for $10M, Claims Toilet Injury 1 hour, 58 minutes ago


MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company, accusing them of negligence.

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John Jenkins, 53, and his wife, Ramona Jenkins, 35, of Brave, Pa., filed the suit Tuesday in county circuit court seeking $10 million in damages from Chisler Inc. and Eastern Associated Coal Corp.

The lawsuit claims Jenkins' face, neck, arms, torso and legs were severely burned last July after the cigarette ignited methane gas leaking from a pipe underneath the toilet unit.

"When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated — the whole top blew off," said Jenkins, a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development Inc. "I can't tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out."

Eastern Associated owns the Blacksville property where the explosion occurred. Jenkins alleges that heavy equipment from Chisler Inc. ran over the pipelines before the explosion, causing the methane gas leak.

A call to the Charleston office of Peabody Energy, the parent company of Eastern Associated Coal, was not returned.

A man who answered the phone at Chisler's office in Fairview said the company would have no comment.