 It was like a scene from a horror film: A 27-year-old man plummeted into a gaping hole that suddenly opened beneath a house, trapping him beneath foundation rubble and killing him. Authorities say the home, built in the 1980s, may have been sitting atop a decades-old underground mine.
| Or it could be possessed by demons... |
Recent rains could have softened the ground under the home, in an isolated area near Lake Alta.
| Or Beelzebub could be using it as a hideout... |
"It's unbelievable," Placer County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Dena Erwin said. "From the front of the house, it's absolutely normal. Then, in the middle of the house, is this enormous hole."
| "And creepy music keeps coming out of the house. And every once in awhile the hole... the hole... it burps!" |
The victim was awake and on the ground floor about 9:30 p.m. Friday when the concrete foundation near the kitchen gave way, sending him plunging into to the ground, Erwin said.
| He ignored those ghostly voices warning "Get out!" for too long. |
| 1st rule of home ownership, if the house sez "Get out!", leave. Call a realtor from the next state. |
Rescuers had trouble reaching him because the ground began to shift, creating an unsafe situation for work crews.
| "Dang Ned, it seems like the earth is eating him!" |
Authorities returned to the home Sunday to try and remove the man's body, though geologists were still testing the house's soundness.
In unrelated news, Halliburton officials have discovered that there is a Mecca in California as well as Arabia. |