When you think about the solitary act of 10 times going to the bathroom, you probably picture a quiet moment of privacy. Yet history is littered with bizarre, gruesome, and outright absurd incidents that turned a simple visit into a life‑changing ordeal. Below, we dive into ten catastrophes that prove the throne can be a perilous perch.
Why 10 Times Going Can Lead to Unexpected Danger
10 Python in the Pan
Most people dread the thought of an inquisitive stare while perched on a public restroom seat, especially when the stall doors have gaping gaps that invite onlookers. Yet the true horror can come from the animal kingdom. Rats, squirrels, frogs and even spiders have been known to crawl out of U‑bends, but one Thai incident eclipses them all.
In 2016, Atthaporn Boonmakchuay felt a sudden, sharp bite on his genitals while using the toilet. Glancing down, he was horrified to see a massive 3.4‑meter (11‑foot) python clamped onto his member. Displaying astonishing composure, Atthaporn looped a rope around the serpent’s head and tied it to the bathroom door before calling for help. He soon collapsed from blood loss, screaming for his wife.
Emergency services arrived to find the python still wedged in the bowl. The creature had to be smashed out with hammers before it could be removed. After a full recovery, Atthaporn’s snake was released back into the wild, presumably seeking less lethal bathroom encounters.
9 Murdered Monarchs
In medieval courts, a ruler’s safety was guarded by a cadre of knights, making assassination a rare feat. However, moments of solitude—like a royal’s bathroom break—created a fleeting vulnerability.
Jaromir, Duke of Bohemia, endured a tumultuous life: exile, castration, blinding, and eventual restoration. While he was seated on the toilet, a hired assassin thrust a spear through his belly, leaving him to bleed out on the bathroom floor. Other sovereigns, such as Godfrey the Hunchback and King Edmund Ironsides, met similar fates; legends claim Edmund was struck in the rear by an arrow from below, the impact so forceful that no feather of the shaft remained visible.
These grisly accounts underscore how a throne can become a literal death seat for those in power.
8 Pop‑up Toilet
Disasters need not involve a seated victim; sometimes the very fixture itself launches an attack. In Amsterdam, a novel solution to nighttime public urination involves toilets that retract into the ground and emerge only after dark.
In 2014, a man riding a moped was startled when one of these pop‑up toilets erupted from the pavement with explosive force. Witnesses described the scene as an explosion, catapulting the rider and his moped into the air. He escaped with minor injuries, though his scooter suffered significant damage. Whether the sudden launch caused him to wet himself remains undocumented.
This incident highlights how innovative sanitation can sometimes backfire spectacularly.
7 Erfurt Latrine Disaster
Unexpected structural failures can turn a noble gathering into a nightmare. In 1184, German King Henry VI summoned his nobles to a fortress in Erfurt for a dispute resolution. The assembly took place in the fortress’s church, where the king presided from a throne of honor.
As the aristocrats settled into their seats, the wooden floor beneath them gave way, plunging the assembly into a massive latrine below. The sudden immersion in foul, stagnant waste led to drowning and asphyxiation from toxic fumes, claiming around sixty lives. King Henry survived only because he was seated on a stone slab that remained intact.
The tragedy, known in German as the Erfurter Latrinensturz, serves as a grim reminder that even sacred spaces can hide deadly hazards.
6 Eglon
Modern toilets often provide solitary privacy, but ancient Roman facilities required communal use on long benches with multiple holes, forcing users into cheek‑to‑cheek proximity.
The Biblical tale of King Eglon, as recounted in the Book of Judges, illustrates the lethal potential of such arrangements. God, displeased with the Israelites, installed the tyrant Eglon as ruler. The left‑handed judge Ehud concealed a sword beneath his clothing, then visited Eglon under the pretense of delivering a secret message.
When alone in the royal latrine, Ehud thrust the blade into Eglon’s massive belly. The king’s enormous girth sealed the wound, preventing removal. In agony, Eglon expelled his bowels and died. His servants, assuming a prolonged bathroom visit, delayed checking on him, allowing Ehud to escape.
5 Collapsing Toilets
The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate the oddball side of scientific research. In 2000, the Public Health prize was awarded for a study titled “The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow,” a tongue‑in‑cheek yet serious investigation into porcelain failures.
The research examined three cases where toilets shattered during use, resulting in hospitalizations. Findings indicated that aging fixtures posed the greatest risk of catastrophic failure. The authors proudly accepted their quirky accolade, noting that their work was far from a fleeting “flash in the pan.”
This study underscores that even everyday bathroom fixtures can become hazardous when neglected.
4 Electric Throne
Michael Anderson Godwin faced the electric chair for murder and sexual assault in 1978, but a review cleared him of the assault charge, sparing him that fate. However, a different electrical peril awaited him in prison.
While watching television and using headphones, Godwin bit into the cable connecting his headphones to the TV. Sitting on a metal toilet, the accidental contact with live wires caused a lethal shock. The incident was ruled a bizarre accident, and Godwin succumbed to his injuries.
This tragic mishap demonstrates how even seemingly mundane electronics can become deadly in the wrong setting.
3 Explosions
When people speak of “explosions in the bathroom,” they often use it figuratively. In reality, toilets can and have exploded, especially during the Victorian era when sewer gases ignited, causing dramatic blasts.
One notable incident involved a lightning strike that ignited methane beneath a toilet, resulting in a violent detonation. More recently, high‑pressure flushing systems manufactured by Flushmate were recalled—in 2012, three million units, and again in 2018, 1.5 million units—because they could cause toilets to explode under pressure.
These events reveal that modern plumbing, while efficient, can harbor explosive potential if engineering flaws arise.
2 Trapped in the Loo
Most people know not to climb into a toilet, yet curiosity sometimes wins. In 2016, a Norwegian man dropped his phone into a public toilet while urinating. His friend, Cato Berntsen Larsen, sprang into action, leaping feet‑first into the bowl to retrieve it.
Larsen, an avid amateur diver, quickly discovered he was stuck in a tank that was only emptied once a year. Up to his thighs in sewage, he panicked, vomited, and required rescue. Firefighters cut open the toilet to free him, but the phone was lost forever.
This episode highlights how well‑meaning heroics can backfire in the most unsanitary of ways.
1 U‑boat Sinks
Most toilet accidents end in embarrassment, but a German U‑boat in 1945 turned a bathroom malfunction into a wartime disaster. U‑1206, a cutting‑edge submarine, featured a high‑pressure waste‑venting system designed for surface flushing.
Captain Karl‑Adolf Schlitt, unfamiliar with the system, asked an engineer for assistance. The engineer turned the wrong valve, causing a torrent of high‑pressure water and sewage to flood the cabin. When the seawater contacted the boat’s batteries, chlorine gas filled the interior, forcing the vessel to surface.
Surfaced and spotted, the U‑boat was attacked by the RAF and abandoned. Four crew members drowned; the survivors were taken as POWs. The captain’s simple mistake flushed the submarine’s fate away.