Number 8 Wang In 2011, when he was in his late teens, a
Chinese citizen sold one of his kidneys for a new IPhone and IPad.
The teenager, only identified by his surname as Wang, was reportedly desperate to obtain
the Apple products in order to keep up with his classmates.
The items were among the most coveted electronic gadgets in China at the time but they were
steeply priced, often equal to or beyond the whole month's salary of an office worker in
a big city.
Wang’s parents couldn’t afford them, so the teen decided to sell his kidney and contacted
black market middlemen on an online messaging board.
The operation took place at an uncertified clinic, in the city of Chenzhou, with Wang
receiving 22,000 yuan, or about $3,500, for his left kidney.
The teenager’s cut was later determined to have been only 10% of the illicit transaction,
with the middlemen keeping the vast majority of the money.
His mother learned what he’d done upon seeing him with the new devices, an IPhone 4 and
an IPad 2.
She contacted the authorities and, following an investigation, nine people were charged
by public prosecutors, including three surgeons.
Jail sentences of three to five years were handed out to each of those involved while
a court awarded Wang’s family a compensation of approximately $230,000 in November of 2012.
The young man’s health gradually deteriorated in the surgery’s aftermath.
The latest updates on his situation came seven years after he’d sold his kidney and indicated
that his life had become extremely difficult.
He spent most of his days bedridden and relied on his family to look after him.
Wang, who suffered from renal failure and required regular dialysis, had also abandoned
his studies and was living on social benefits.
Number 7 Steph Matto A former reality TV star was forced to give
up on a lucrative business that involved selling jars of her intestinal gases after experiencing
heart attack-like symptoms.
Connecticut woman Steph Matto, mainly known for her appearance on the show 90 Day Fiancé,
had begun documenting her unique products on TikTok, in 2021, and she amassed millions
of views on the platform.
Her business venture had commenced in November after she’d received requests on the adult-content
site Unfiltrd.
The 31-year-old woman was surprised by the demand for her “wind jars” and the self-described
“fartepreneur” was selling up to 50 jars every week at the height of production.
Matto told a media outlet that she made roughly $200,000 before ultimately announcing her
retirement due to health concerns.
In late 2021, Matto was rushed to the emergency room with shooting pains in her chest and
breathing difficulty.
Talking to Jam Press, she said “I thought I was having a stroke and that these were
my final moments”.
At the hospital, however, an EKG revealed that the symptoms had stemmed from the accumulation
of excess gas, due to the woman’s high-fiber diet.
To keep up with production and demand specifics, Matto, for months, had been mainly living
off of beans, eggs and protein shakes.
The former reality star also commented on the reactions to her unusual product noting
that, while some had praised her “girl boss” attitude, she’d also received negative attention
and even death threats.
Number 6 Marcos Salas & Laura Holliday The authorities in Palm Beach County, Florida,
captured a pair of burglars, in March of 2019, after they’d taken a taxi to the Boca Raton
home they’d targeted.
Marcos Salas and Laura Holliday, aged 34 and 33 respectively, were captured by surveillance
cameras as they arrived at the address on March the 11th.
Holliday checked the mailbox before she and her accomplice went to the back of the home.
They proceeded to smash a rear window and then entered the property from which they
eventually made off with jewellery and other valuable items.
Towards identifying the two suspects, the authorities were reportedly able to gather
evidence based on the footage and the taxi driver’s reports.
Salas was arrested and charged with burglary, grand theft and criminal mischief, with his
bond being set at $56,000.
He admitted involvement and, a few days after he was apprehended, Holliday was taken into
custody as well on similar charges.
Number 5 James Sorby In 2011, a young man from England ended up
in the hospital with horrific burns following an attempt to steal copper cables.
The incident occurred at an electricity sub-station belonging to a disused Post Office sorting
room, in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
The high prices paid for copper and other metals had recently caused a surge in metal
thefts across the county but 22-year-old James Sorby’s attempt nearly cost him his life.
He’d made his way into the disused room but didn’t even get a chance to touch the
targeted wires.
A massive charge jumped a gap and connected to Sorby, sending a surge of 22,000 volts
into his body.
The father-of-one suffered severe burns to his hands and face in addition to a weakened
heart, partial loss of sight in his left eye and diminished mobility in one of his hands.
He survived but spent weeks in the hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries and
skin grafts.
As the electricity left his body it caused a skull wound that exposed the man’s brain
and he required a graft and hair transplant for it.
Sorby, who shared his story as a warning to other would-be metal thieves, claimed that
the most traumatic moment of his recovery was when his daughter couldn’t recognize
him because of his facial burns.
Number 4 Failed McDonald’s Robbery In June of 2016, two hapless robbers targeted
a McDonald’s, in the eastern French city of Besancon, but their criminal endeavor was
promptly thwarted.
After entering the restaurant, they started shouting at customers to get on the floor
and, to make their intentions known, fired a shotgun blast into the ceiling.
What the pair didn’t know was that, at the time, eleven of the 40-some customers were
plain clothes members of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, an elite unit specializing
in hostage situations.
The Special Forces officers, who had their weapons concealed, didn’t immediately intervene,
as they primarily sought to protect others present in the restaurant from an escalating
conflict.
They, instead, waited for the right moment to pounce on the robbers.
One of them took close to $2,300 out of the register and they both then attempted to make
their getaways.
Members of the elite unit chased after them and caught one of the men as he stumbled on
some stairs.
After immobilizing him, they fired warning shots at the other robber, ordering him to
stand down.
The man took aim at them with the shotgun, at which point one officer responded with
a "neutralization shot" to his abdomen.
The robbers, both reported as being in their mid-20s, were known to local police.
They were taken to the hospital and subsequently charged with armed robbery.
Number 3 Carjacking Attempt on Derrick Lewis In May of 2021, UFC heavyweight contender
Derrick Lewis took to Instagram to describe an incident in which an unnamed man had tried
to break into his car.
The attempted vehicle theft occurred in Lewis’ home city of Houston, Texas.
At the time, 36-year-old Lewis, nicknamed the Black Beast, not only competed in the
heaviest division of the most prominent mixed martial arts promotion in the world but also
held the record for most knockouts in his division.
Multiple media outlets reporting on the situation described the feared striker as the last man
one would want to carjack.
As he returned to his car on May the 18th, following a training session, Lewis heard
some noises before discovering a man using a screwdriver and attempting to open the door
on the driver’s side.
Lewis hit the alleged thief and then pinned him down until the authorities arrived at
the scene.
He then posted to his social media a photo of the man being put in a police cruiser as
well as a video showing the damage to his car.
Lewis also uploaded a photo of his bruised knuckles to his Instagram story, captioning
it “Satisfaction.
He’s OK”.
The would-be thief had been struck so hard by Lewis that he needed to be taken to the
hospital for treatment prior to being charged with criminal mischief.
Number 2 Roberto Fuentes Bernal In 2016, a man from Venezuela became the target
of brutal mob vigilantism after he’d allegedly mugged a man on the streets of the capital
city of Caracas.
The incident occurred during hard times for the South American country as, in recent years,
it had been dealing with severe inflation, poverty and a crime rate which some media
outlets reported was on par with that of a war zone.
During the April incident, a man in his 70s, who’d just left a bank, began shouting that
Roberto Fuentes Bernal, aged 42, had stolen his money.
Bernal started running but was soon knocked to the ground and savagely beaten by a group
of motorcycle drivers.
They reached into his pockets and handed the mugging victim a wad of cash, reportedly equivalent
to $5.
As Bernal bled out on the curb, from a gash in the back of his skull, one man poured gasoline,
which had been siphoned from a motorcycle tank, on his body.
Bernal was then set ablaze and, as one witness reported, his skin began to audibly crackle
and pop as the smell of burning flesh began to fill the air.
Onlookers didn’t intervene but only took out their cellphones and recorded Bernal struggling
to get up and fruitlessly trying to extinguish the flames that were consuming his head and
body.
He would’ve died in the street if not for the intervention of Alejandro Delgado, a youth
pastor and part-time motorcycle taxi driver.
He put Bernal out, much to the protests of his coworkers, and the accused mugger was
rushed to the hospital.
His eyes had been seared shut and his scorched trachea only allowed him to speak in whispers.
Bernal died two days later and the harrowing video of the vigilante attack began circulating
online.
According to updates on the matter, prosecutors had charged 23-year-old law school dropout
Maickol Jaimez with pouring the gasoline.
However, the case against him was considered weak as his face wasn’t clearly visible
in the video and witnesses were reluctant to cooperate with the police.
Number 1 Nitin Vora Over a weekend in August of 2020, a bank robber
in western India was found dead after breaking into the Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, in Vadodara.
The man, identified as Nitin Vora, had used an electric cutter to gain access to the bank,
where he was captured by surveillance cameras, at around 12:45 am.
Vora then took the power tool and attempted to cut through the bank’s vault.
The facility’s Chennai-based security team alerted manager Prashant Sharma.
He made his way to the bank, where he was shocked to find Vora dead in a pool of his
own blood.
It was subsequently determined that, while working in the dark, the robber had tripped
on the cutter’s wire.
He then fell on it and the power tool fatally sliced through his neck.
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