The demands of working in a kitchen can be physically strenuous and mentally exhausting. Every now and then, that pressure can boil over, causing unthinkable tragedy. Other times, there are things that occur in life that just can’t be explained. The following is a list of 10 chefs who died tragically on the job.

10 A Bloody Mess

In September 2012, 46-year-old Stephan Stolze, a chef at Steamer’s Restaurant in Key Largo, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and walked into the dining area. In front of his coworkers, Stolze raised the knife to the right side of his neck and slashed his throat.

Bleeding profusely, Stolze ran to his apartment, which was located above the restaurant. Meanwhile, the restaurant’s employees—frantic and confused—mopped up the bloody scene as guests began to arrive for dinner.

Robin Schaupp, the restaurant’s manager, was in a meeting when the incident occurred. As soon as she was notified, she raced upstairs to find Stolze lying dead on the ground.

Stolze’s coworkers claimed that he had become depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend and that he wanted to move back to his home country of Germany. However, on the advice of his father, Stolze remained in Key Largo because Germany didn’t have many job opportunities.

9 Dry Ice

In 2012, 47-year-old Jay Luther, a popular chef and owner of Germantown Cafe East in Nashville, closed the cafe’s doors on a Friday night following a power outage. In order to preserve the food, dry ice was stored in the walk-in freezer.

When the power came back Sunday evening, Luther decided to check on the food. Once inside the freezer, he became trapped when the door closed behind him. He did not have a cell phone, and the button to open the freezer door from the inside was not working. However, Luther was able to set off the robbery alarm within the freezer to alert authorities.

Four cops showed up. But they decided that it was a false alarm because the doors were locked and there was no sign of a break-in. Thirteen hours later, Luther’s lifeless body was found inside the freezer by coworkers. It was speculated that the cause of death was carbon monoxide inhalation from the dry ice.

8 Suspicious Circumstances

In July 2015, a man identified only as Rohit was working as a chef at Fidahh Restaurant, which is located at the Epicura Mall in New Delhi, India. On July 10, Rohit informed his family that he had decided to quit his job and was going to collect his money from Navdeep Singh, the restaurant’s owner.

The following day, Rohit’s dead body was discovered in the restaurant’s kitchen. According to reports, Rohit had slept in the kitchen overnight with two other employees. The report goes on to state that Rohit and the other two men had been drinking the night before and that Rohit had passed out in an inebriated state.

However, officials stated that the death of the man was suspicious. A New Delhi court charged the owner with murder. He was also charged with causing the disappearance of evidence that was connected to the death of the chef.

7 Financial Problems

Homaro Cantu seemed to have everything going for him. At 38 years old, he was a Michelin star chef who owned two successful, Chicago-based restaurants. He was also the author of two cookbooks and was on the verge of opening an innovative brewery.

Then it all came crashing down. In April 2015, Cantu was found dead in his brewery from an apparent suicide by hanging. Those who knew him were completely dumbfounded because they had noticed no signs of despair.

Unfortunately, not everything was as it seemed. Cantu, who was known for his unique cuisine, was experiencing enormous financial pressure. Alexander Espalin, his former partner and investor in two of his restaurants, had accused Cantu of misappropriating company funds.

Espalin sued Cantu for using those funds for personal expenses such as fine dining, personal expenditures, and trips. Apparently, Cantu dug a hole so deep that he felt death was his only way out.

6 Decapitated Cobra

In August 2014, Chinese chef Peng Fan was preparing a meal for diners in his restaurant. The specialty for the day was snake soup with an Indochinese spitting cobra as the main ingredient.

Fan chopped the head off the cobra, cut up the meat, and began the stew. Twenty minutes later, he went to discard the head. As Fan picked up the cobra’s decapitated head, it bit him on the hand.

Suddenly, screams began echoing from the kitchen, causing commotion in the restaurant and diners to discard their food. The venom that entered Fan’s hand killed him before emergency personnel arrived.

But how could such a thing happen when the reptile has been killed?

Dr. Matthew Lewin, director of California Academy of Sciences’ Center for Exploration and Travel Health, explained, “Unlike humans, snake tissue can withstand long periods without circulating blood. The tissue doesn’t lose function as quickly as a mammal and the reflexes remain intact.”

5 Toxic Fumes

In the recent years, China has waged war against corporations that illegally dump hazardous toxins into the environment, causing “cancer villages” throughout the country.

Police in China discovered that factories were dumping their waste into drainpipes under the supervision of a parking lot operator. Records show that more than 3,400 tons of toxic waste had been dumped in a particular area within a nine-month period.

Unfortunately, the region of the dumping was located next to a Chinese restaurant. This led to the release of poisonous gases from the restaurant’s kitchen drain, ultimately killing the restaurant’s owner and chef. The death sparked an investigation. Ultimately, 27 suspects and 20 factories were implicated in the illegal dumping.

4 Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod, 41, was a successful top chef who had worked in some of the finest Latin restaurants in Philadelphia. He had received numerous accolades for his spin on Latin cuisine, including two bells from The Inquirer’s Craig LaBan. On a personal level, McLeod was described as being very friendly. He was also a workout fanatic who was covered in tattoos.

On a Sunday evening in March 2015, McLeod was working as the executive chef at Alma de Cuba in Philadelphia’s old city neighborhood. That night during dinner service hours, McLeod was found unresponsive in a locked bathroom of the restaurant.

Emergency personnel were called by frantic coworkers, and McLeod was taken to the hospital. Unfortunately, the executive chef could not be revived and was pronounced dead a short time later.

Following an autopsy, the coroner reported that the 41-year-old had succumbed to heart disease, a condition perhaps overlooked in a physically active man in his early forties.

3 P.F. Chang’s

In 2002, 38-year-old Elivelton Dias moved to Peabody, Massachusetts, to escape the growing violence in his home country of Brazil. He became employed as a sous-chef at P.F. Chang’s and happily worked for the restaurant chain for many years.

In 2015, his wife had just given birth to their first child. However, everything came crashing down when the police were called to the restaurant during the dinner rush hour. They found Dias lying on the kitchen floor. He had literally been stabbed in the back.

Dias was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The culprit was a 23-year-old fellow chef, Jaquan Huston. The two men had gotten into an altercation. Then Huston grabbed a knife and stabbed Dias. Huston fled from the scene but was arrested later at his home. Huston has been charged with first-degree murder.

2 Terrifying Discovery

In March 2016, the owner of Lee’s Cafe and Bistro, a Vietnamese restaurant in Philadelphia, went to the kitchen in the basement to check on the chef. A food order had been placed 10 minutes earlier but had never arrived.

The owner found Thuong Nguyen, the 54-year-old chef, lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood with her throat slashed. Moments later, frantic coworkers flagged down a patrol officer outside the restaurant. But Nguyen was already dead.

Police stated that the scene of the crime showed signs of a struggle. At the time of the murder, there were five customers and four employees inside the restaurant.

Later, police stated that a fellow employee—identified only as Noelle—was a suspect in the horrendous crime. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with knowledge of the suspect’s whereabouts is asked to contact the police. A $20,000 reward for information leading to his arrest has been offered.

1 Brown’s Chicken And Pasta Massacre

To pursue the American dream, 46-year-old Guadalupe Maldonado moved his wife and three children to Chicago from Mexico. In Chicago, he worked as a cook at Brown’s Chicken & Pasta restaurant.

Although he wasn’t making a lot of money, he loved his job and the opportunity to give his family a better life. Like clockwork, Maldonado was always home by 10:00 PM. So when 1:30 AM rolled around one day with no word from him, his family became extremely concerned.

On that cold January night in 1993, two men had walked into the restaurant shortly before closing time at 9:00 PM. Moments later, a robbery ensued. Lynn Ehlenfeldt, 49, was ordered to open the safe.

After doing so, she was told to turn around. Then her throat was slashed. Another employee tried to make a run for it but was shot in the back and killed. The remaining five employees, including Maldonado, were ordered into the freezer and executed.

The case went unsolved for nine years until police arrested Juan Luna and James Degorski with the help of DNA evidence. Luna and Degorski were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.

Hollywood seems like a wonderful place to those of us who don’t read too deeply about its history. It’s where movie magic is made, and it’s full of shiny celebrities, and that seems really nice. 

Actors are elevated to great heights in our minds because of the roles they play and the people we want them to be in real life. The stories behind those roles aren’t always what you think, however. Sometimes an actor stumbles into a role for some very unexpected reasons.

10. Bill Murray Thought Garfield Was a Coen Bros Movie

At this point in his career, Bill Murray is as much an urban legend as he is a man. There are stories of random people meeting him in the most unexpected places and being briefly befriended by the eccentric comedian and it happens so often that someone made a documentary about it. It’s hard to know if everything you think you know about Bill Murray is true.

As for what Murray has had to say about his own work, it’s just as weird. For instance, he famously voiced Garfield the Cat in the animated movie that came out in 2004, something he later made a joke about in the movie Zombieland.

Murray, who started out doing comedy and is more known for quirky, prestige comedy dramas these days, seemed like he was slumming it in the movie Garfield and people wanted to know why. So, in an interview, he explained what happened.

Garfield was written by a man named Joel Cohen. According to Murray, he mistook him for Joel Coen, one of the famous Coen brothers from movies like Fargo.

Murray explained that once they agreed to pay him enough, he finally went to record his lines after only reading a couple of pages, and they were all terrible. He complained so much that someone had to explain it wasn’t the Joel Coen he was thinking of.

That story’s all fine and good, of course, but he did return for a sequel as well, so it seems like maybe the job wasn’t that confusing after all.

9. Coolio Was Promised a Role in Batman 5 to be in Batman and Robin

The Batman franchise has been an absolute rollercoaster through pop culture. From the original comics to the campy ’60s show it was always something the public had a general idea of. Then Tim Burton brought a dark and quirky Batman story to the big screen with Michael Keaton in the title role and kicked off what could be considered the modern superhero blockbuster era.

That Batman franchise had four parts with three different actors in the cowl. Each film was received a bit worse than the movie before it once Burton left the director’s chair, too.

By 1997’s Batman and Robin starring George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the franchise had run its course. The movie was critically shredded, and the franchise died for over a decade before it was rebooted by Christoper Nolan with The Dark Knight in 2008.

Batman and Robin was notable for giving us Batgirl and bat-nipples on the bat-suits, but it also featured rapper Coolio in an extremely weird cameo. He doesn’t do much except oversee a race, and it’s odd that such a recognizable face filled the role.

According to Coolio, it wasn’t just because he wandered by the set one day. He says director Joel Schumacher promised him a role in the planned sequel, what would have been Batman 5, as the villain Scarecrow. His appearance in Batman and Robin would have just set him up as an in-universe character. But that sequel never happened and Coolio never got the role.

8. Patch Adams Agreed to The Movie About His Life in Exchange for Funding He Never Got

Patch Adams was one of Robin Williams’ most famous roles, in which he plays the titular doctor who uses humor to help treat his patients. In real life, Dr. Adams has been accused of being a bit of a jerk and not nearly as lovable as Williams made him seem. 

If the man isn’t so loving and fun, why did he ever agree to a goofy yet heartfelt movie about his life? Turns out he may have been duped a little, and that could be why he’s a jerk. This is a chicken or egg situation.

Adams is on record saying he hated the movie, and it’s not just because it was a little sappy. He says that the producers agreed to help fund his nonprofit healthcare project in exchange for making the movie. But then they never paid for anything. 

Adams also had issues with his portrayal in the film, which he felt made him and the work he did seem dumb at best. Critics agreed, and the movie has a very poor rating overall, something which the real Adams felt was a kick in the teeth in terms of the actual work he does and the people he tries to help. 

7. Brian Cox Thought the 007 Reality Show He Hosted Was a Movie

In 2023, a James Bond-themed reality show called 007: Road to a Million debuted on Prime. The show forces couples – friends, siblings, spouses, or whatever – to solve clues and find money in exotic European locations in what is loosely related to the idea of spies and James Bond. It was hosted by Succession star Brian Cox, which gave it some clout.

Cox later said he agreed to be on the show because he was called and asked about it. He was very excited to be in a James Bond movie, which is what he thought he was agreeing to, so he signed up. He had wanted to be in one for years. It was only later that they clarified for him that this was not a 007 movie, but a reality show. 

6. Will Smith Did Fresh Prince Because He Was Broke

Will Smith’s career may have started as a sort of goofy, PG-rated rapper but it was his turn as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that made him a household name and propelled him to stardom. From there he became, for a time, one of the biggest actors in the world. 

There’s a world in which Smith never became the Fresh Prince, though, and it’s easy to imagine. He was not eager to become a sitcom star; it hadn’t been his big dream or the goal of his career. Instead, it was something he agreed to because he was in a financial bind with the IRS and it was an easy way to get out. 

He once explained that, after his song “Parents Just Don’t Understand” hit it big, he was not entirely responsible with his money. He was soon famous but entirely broke, and needed to pay taxes on all the money he’d wasted. 

The IRS repossessed most of what Smith had bought, things like a car and motorcycle. His second album was not a hit, so a girlfriend suggested he “hang around the Arsenio Hall Show” and try to meet someone famous. That advice is absolutely baffling but not as baffling as the fact it worked. Smith ran into Quincy Jones, the two got to talking, and he pitched the Fresh Prince idea. The rest is history. 

5. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Agreed to be in Airplane! For a Rug

It’s rare that a pro athlete becomes an actor, or at least a prolific one, but many athletes have had a turn or two on camera. Back in 1980, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a memorable role in the comedy Airplane! And the story of how he ended up in the film is as goofy as the movie itself. 

The co-pilot role was originally written for baseball player Pete Rose, but he declined. The producers were able to get in touch with Jabbar, but he had a stipulation. He wanted an additional $5,000 on top of the promised salary because there was a rug he wanted to buy. That was the only way they’d get him on board.

Producers agreed to the rug bonus, and Jabbar starred in the movie, delivering some of its most memorable lines.

4. Leonard Nimoy Only Agreed to Wrath of Khan Because Spock Died

The cast of the original Star Trek was known to have their ups and downs over the years in terms of how they felt about fans, about the show, and each other. The show debuted in the ’60s, after all, and then had a resurgence in the ’80s with films that led to The Next Generation and now a massive Trek universe of shows and movies. 

Back in the ’80s, Leonard Nimoy was happy to distance himself from his role as Spock. He was not a fan of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and didn’t want to return to make Wrath of Khan because he didn’t want to make another bad movie. 

Nimoy was talked into starring in the movie when they told him Spock would die. He agreed killing Spock would be better than just not appearing at all, so he came back. He would come back for part three as well when the studio allowed Nimoy to direct as well as star.

3. Celine Dion Only Agreed to Record My Heart Will Go On as Demo

You could make a good argument that Celine Dion’s most famous song is “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. Being one of the highest-grossing films ever, the song had a lot of reach that none of her other music ever could. The fact she never wanted to sing it makes it even more interesting.

On the day she recorded the song, Dion wanted to skip it. She says she was tired; it was probably late, and the song never appealed to her, anyway. It was her husband who convinced her to try it as a demo track if nothing else. Just something she could bang out quickly, and then they could go home.

She recorded it and that recording ended up being what was used in Titanic, a song that stayed in the number one Billboard spot for 16 weeks. 

2. Randy Savage Only Agreed to Wrestle a Hamster If It Was a Boy

Besides a long career of parody songs, Weird Al has had several moments to shine on TV and in movies. His show The Weird Al Show from the 1990s was as weird as you’d expect and featured skits, music, and guests. In one episode he had wrestler Randy Macho Man Savage on, and part of his appearance involved wrestling a hamster.

Wrestling a hamster is goofy and that should be all you need to know about it but it was not all Randy Savage needed to know. For whatever reason, Savage had a hard time understanding the joke. In the skit he’s supposed to lose and, apparently, it was very hard to get Savage to understand this because he felt like he should not lose to a hamster. He thought it would be bad for his image. 

When he finally understood the joke, he had one caveat that needed producers to confirm before he agreed to the part. The hamster had to be a boy, because he didn’t want to lose to a girl. 

1. The Cast of Starship Troopers Agreed To the Shower Scene Only If The Director Also Got Naked

Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers is, on its surface, a very goofy sci-fi action movie full of vaguely dumb characters blowing up bugs in space. But there is some serious satire of war and governments behind all that, the sort you’d expect from the man behind RoboCop. 

One of the most well known scenes in the movie takes place in a shower. The entire squad, male and female, shower together. It’s very casual in the movie and the idea is that these are soldiers and they do everything together, who cares if it’s co-ed. But in real life, these were actors being put into an uncomfortable situation.

Before they agreed to do the scene, one member of the co-ed cast had a demand of Verhoeven. They’d get naked if he agreed to do it with them. That was probably part joke, part challenge, and part effort to feel less exploited overall. 

Verhoeven had “no problem” with the request, so when you watch that scene know that not just the cast, but the director and also his cinematographer, who apparently came from a nudist colony as a youth, stripped down.

Cats may hold the top position in our hearts, but some of them also hold very real job titles. Dogs may be more accommodating to their bosses (and owners), but cats have nonetheless received stellar performance reviews throughout the centuries.

The famous feline attitude simply indicates that they do it for the love of the job, not for treats or recognition. Here are 10 cats that have performed important, unusual, or adorable jobs.

10 Unbelievable Things We Have Made Out Of Cats

10 Chief Mouser To The Cabinet Office

Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office is a very prestigious position at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of Britain’s Prime Minister. The Chief Mouser title is currently held by Larry, who was recruited from the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for his mousing resume. He even has an entry on the official British government website.^[1]

The position began during the reign of Henry VIII, but records only exist from 1929 onward. Occasionally, the office has been empty for long periods of time when mice have wisely not caused trouble. The cat that held the title the longest was Wilberforce, who served under Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan, and Margaret Thatcher.

9 Mail Carriers

In 1876, the Belgian city of Liege decided that the most efficient way to transport the mail was via cat. The Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat trained 37 volunteers to deliver letters sealed in waterproof pouches tied around their necks. One enterprising individual delivered its mail in about five hours, but the others took up to 24.^[2]

On March 4, 1876, The New York Times reported, “It is believed that, unless the criminal class of dogs undertakes to waylay and rob the mail-cats, the messages will be delivered with rapidity and safety.” The experiment was promptly discontinued.

8 Ship’s Cat

Felines adapt easily to their surroundings. They are excellent at catching mice that bite through important ropes and food stores. This makes cats perfect for life on a ship.

Several cats have been decorated for their naval service. In 1941, “Unsinkable Sam” started out on the German dreadnought Bismarck and was found on the wreckage of the sunken ship by the HMS Cossack. After the Cossack was torpedoed, Sam was transferred to the HMS Ark Royal, which was also torpedoed. He then rightfully retired from military service.^[3]

Pooli, another World War II cat, was awarded three service ribbons and four battle stars for her work on an attack transport. In 1949, Simon protected the stores of the British HMS Amethyst during a 101-day siege. He is the only cat to be awarded Britain’s Dickin Medal and was buried with full military honors.

7 CIA Informants

In the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency attempted to train cats to spy on Soviet embassies. The program, Project Acoustic Kitty, funded operations to implant microphones, transmitters, and antennae into cat’s bodies to secretly record conversations. The cats were then trained to follow orders, which proved to be much harder.^[4]

In the first mission, a female cat was taken to a public park and told to record a conversation between two men on a nearby park bench. While crossing the road, she was hit by a taxi and killed instantly. The CIA concluded that the project was “not practical.”

6 Astronaut

By 1961, the French space program had successfully launched rats into Earth’s atmosphere. Then they decided it was time to go bigger. What better animal to follow rats than cats?

Fourteen feline candidates were selected for training, which involved a compression chamber, spinning in a high g-force centrifuge, and exposure to rocket noises. During a 10-hour surgery, electrodes were implanted in the selected cat’s brain so the crew could measure its biological responses during the flight.

On October 18, 1963, a tuxedo cat named Felicette was launched in the nose cone of a Veronique AG1. She flew almost 161 kilometers (100 mi) above the Earth, briefly experienced weightlessness, and safely returned via parachute. She is the only cat to survive a space flight.^[5]

10 Fantastic Little-Known Felines

5 Composer

In 1996, Rabbi Moshe Cotel was sitting at his baby grand piano when Ketzel (“cat” in Yiddish) jumped onto the keyboard. She landed on the treble and walked down toward the bass. Cotel, who was chairman of the composition department of Peabody Conservatory, grabbed a pencil and transcribed the notes.^[6]

A year later, he heard that the Paris New Music Review was hosting a competition for songs under 60 seconds. He entered Ketzel’s song, which was titled “Piece for Piano: Four Paws.”

The judges, who were not told the title or composer, awarded it an honorable mention. When the piece was performed at the Museum of the City of New York, Ketzel was sitting in the audience and gave a loud meow at the announcement of his name.

4 Mayor

Talkeetna, a small town of about 900 people near Denali National Park, had a very unusual mayor: Stubbs, a ginger cat. He came to power in 1998. As the town is a historic district, the role is more symbolic than functional. His mayoral duties included patrolling the town, drinking catnip-infused water every afternoon at West Rib Cafe & Pub, and taking visitors in his “office” at Nagley’s General Store.^[7]

But even cats have political opponents. In 2013, Stubbs was brutally attacked by a dog. His lifesaving operation was funded by donations from hundreds of well-wishers around the globe.

Stubbs soon used this positive press to make a failed bid for the 2014 Alaska Senate race. He died peacefully of old age at his home in 2017. No word yet on who will fill the power vacuum.

3 Customs Officer

In 2002, a Siamese cat wandered into a customs checkpoint in Stavropol, Russia. He was adopted by the guards and soon took on the duty of searching vehicles for illegally smuggled Caspian Sea caviar.

“One day, Rusik just leapt into the boot of a passing car at the checkpoint and immediately sniffed out some sturgeon,” police officer Sergei Kovalenko said. “After that, we decided to use him all the time in our searches.”^[8]

No matter how ingenious a hiding spot the smugglers (often mafia) created, Rusik could sniff them out. After he spent less than a year on the job and put the sniffer dogs out of work, it was clear that the cat was a formidable weapon against sturgeon smuggling.

In 2003, he was run over by a car that he had previously busted for smuggling caviar—a move that many believe was a mafia-ordered contract killing. Rusik was simply too good at his job to live.

2 Assistant Librarian

When a striped cat named Kuzya showed up at the Novorossiysk children’s library in 2013, the staff just couldn’t resist letting him in. But for Kuzya to be allowed in the library, he had to be made an official employee. Unfortunately, the Russian government was cracking down on undocumented workers, so no human—or feline—could be hired without the proper paperwork.

The library staff was undeterred. They acquired an animal passport, and Novorossiysk’s head librarian signed a special order that made Kuzya an official library assistant. His wages are 30 cans of Whiskas cat food a month, and he must show up to work in a uniform (a bow tie).^[9]

1 Actor

For as long as there has been cinema, there have been movie star cats. However, as the felines are notoriously hard to train, dogs are more popular as costars.

Some cats that have graced the silver screen include Orangey in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Syn Cat as “Tao” in The Incredible Journey (1963), Ted Nude-Gent as “Mr. Bigglesworth” in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Crackerjack and Pumpkin as “Crookshanks” in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and Tonic and Leo as “Church” in Pet Sematary (2019).

The PATSY (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year) Awards recognize animal excellence in film. Cats, which are notoriously hard to work with due to their Hollywood personalities, have nonetheless managed to snag quite a few nods.^[10]

10 Weird Ways Cats Have Been Venerated Through History

About The Author: Jackie Mead is a museum educator by day and a writer by night. Her work has appeared on Cracked, HistoryisNow, and History Magazine.

I quit! Most employees have had this phrase running through their minds for the longest time, but you know what? Every day they still wake up and go to that “lousy” job with a smile on their face. Others who have quit their jobs have done so with the utmost respect as they didn’t want to ruin their CV or reputation.

Well, others haven’t given a flying fudge—they have gone straight to their boss and told them, “You know what, I quit!” Others have chosen to do it in “style;” they decided to go with the crazy way of doing things, and those right there are our subjects for today.

What crazy ways of quitting your job can you come up with? Well, here are the top 10 craziest ways someone quit their job.

Related: 10 Jobs From The Early 1900s That Totally Sucked

10 Marching All the Way Out

Joey, a worker at a luxurious hotel, had had enough of his boss for the three years he had been working there. This employee had marched into the hotel every day, giving his best, but his employer kept demanding more and treating him like trash. Joey decided it was time for one last march (literally).

Together with What Cheer? (the band he was a part of), Joey brought the marching band with all the equipment in place. In the video, Joey walks with his friends into the hotel and waits for the boss to come. After a while, the boss emerges with an angry face and starts ordering them out. The band, still silent, waited for Joey to drop the big phrase “I quit” before they rolled out singing, dancing, and playing their musical instruments.

If the boss didn’t hear Joey saying he quit, the band made sure that he saw them march out singing, “We quit, we quit!” Message received—loud and clear.

9 Nothing Crazy, I Am Just Out of Here!

Employees worldwide are so afraid of their bosses or losing their jobs that they find people who walk out on their bosses crazy. In this particular case, an employee majestically used the intercom and announced that he was quitting. With his voice rumbling all over the shop, he took his time to mention some of his colleagues, you know, to make sure that they heard him and he was making a rational decision.

Imagine walking up to the intercom and uttering a phrase that nobody saw coming! Crazy, right? From the video’s comment section, a group of users lauded him for his courage, while others were still in denial: they contemplated that probably the intercom was off or it was after hours. Either way, that was crazy and unbelievable, at least for most employees who want to quit but can’t.

8 Resigning Live On-Air

Just so nobody says they didn’t hear or see, some incredible news anchors have decided to quit live on air. Liz Wahl, RT America’s news anchor, had simply had enough of the ethical and moral challenges she had been going through, especially considering that her grandparents came to the United States as refugees.

Liz Wahl decided to quit because she felt she didn’t want to work for a media house owned by Russians who were the cause of her grandparents fleeing from their native home. While Wahl’s case was emotional, it is still a crazy way to quit a job. She could have handed her resignation in private, allowing the owners to come up with a touching story of how she chose her personal life over her work. But look at her; she ensured that everybody knew why she quit.

7 A Little Swagger Won’t Hurt… Or Will It?

Kevin, who works at a superstore, decided that enough was enough. He picked up the intercom, read a note from his phone explaining why he was quitting, and left his office. As Kevin left his office, he was met with a colleague who had heard him say he was resigning over the intercom, and she asked him if he was for real.

Kevin’s face showed that he was not playing around, so his colleague did not need a verbal answer. Kevin started to boil up; he asked the rhetorical question, “Should I clock out?” His manager, who appeared from nowhere, replied, “Before I fire you? Yes.” Kevin said he had already resigned, and that wouldn’t be necessary.

Kevin, who was now in a sarcastic mood, told his boss why he was quitting. He complained that he had been getting fewer hours and earning an amount that was not enough to take care of his bills. When asked if he was recording the whole thing, Kevin affirmed that he was. He said that he was now a prankster and people (his colleagues) seemed to be enjoying the show only that they couldn’t laugh out loud as they didn’t want to get fired.

6 I Quit On Air… Again!

Quitting on air seems to be a viable option for news anchors. While our first incident was a bit emotional, this one is a bit “controversial,” which makes it crazy from a neutral point of view.

Back in 2014, a news reporter and anchor in Alaska quit her job on live TV. Prior to her resignation, there had been talks about the legal use of marijuana in the state.

Medical marijuana is legal in Alaska. However, there had been an ongoing petition that wanted full legal use of marijuana. While reporting the news, the news anchor revealed everything that had been reported earlier in the show was true and that she was the actual owner of the marijuana company in question. She expressed her sentiments on the issues right before she quit. “Well, as for this job, not that I have a choice… but I quit!” she said before leaving the studio. For the record, she was not remorseful at all. If anything, she was the opposite of that.

5 For the Last Time, the New York Times

Readers picked up the morning paper and read, “A Man Resigns From His Job!” That was the headline of The New York Times on March 14, 2012. Well, that’s not true… I mean, the headline part; it was probably in the middle pages… or the back.

On the said date, Greg Smith, a senior employee at investment bank Goldman Sachs decided to resign by writing a resignation letter and posting it in The New York Times.

Fortunately for him, this resignation letter also served as a job application, as Greg secured another job as an author of a million-dollar book.

4 Take That!

Usually, cakes are for weddings, anniversaries, birthday celebrations, and other significant events. Well, one employee certainly didn’t think so when he handed his boss a resignation cake.

In an incident that Piotr Sosnowski, the co-founder and the head of HR at Zety, still recalls, an employee walked up to him and handed him a resignation cake. Of course, the company was still a startup at the time. Today, Piotr can only look back at the incident and smile. That guy takes the cake!

3 A Facetime Message

Do you remember American Ninja Warrior’s host, Matt Iseman? You should. The guy is famous for his looks, and you know what… never mind, I digress. Well, the story is he quit his job via Facetime in a one-sided video, to be exact.

Matt recorded himself asking his boss if he had noticed that some of his employees were already leaving. Matt said that he was the next one on the list, and before his boss could see the video and give his side of the story, he had quit. In his defense, Matt said that his boss should learn to treat people fairly. Too bad Matt wasn’t there to see whether or not his boss ever changed.

2 One Pizza Too Many

For most people, losing a job is not something to be proud of; but this wasn’t the case for Luka Arezina, now the co-founder of DataProt. Luka was on the verge of completing a six-month contract that he described as “nightmarish.” With the opportunity to take up another job, Luka devised a plan to let his boss know what he felt.

With a low salary, poor working conditions, and a not-so-likable boss, Luka decided to buy 26 pizzas to match the number of employees at the company. He then wrote motivational phrases, jokes, and other personal messages. The 26th and the final pizza went to his boss. It was the spiciest of them all, probably to symbolize his bitterness for working with the company.

1 Tick Tock Trouble

One chef had decided he had seen enough, or rather, he had cooked enough but wasn’t getting the compensation that he deserved. With three children and many bills to pay, Baker decided that all the hours he put in deserved better compensation.

One morning, he woke up and reported for duty. While his boss expected him to go about his duties and open the restaurant, the chef decided to create a video explaining why he was quitting his job. Satisfied with his rant, the chef left the kitchen, leaving some food cooking on the burner.

Ooh, I forgot! He left a disclaimer for his boss. He warned him through the video that he better hurry or the food would burn. He was out of there, but at least he still cared.