Fifteen year-old Alexa Longueira was walking along Victory Boulevard in Staten Island minding her own business when she fell into an open manhole. Instead of paying attention to where she was walking, she was too intent on tapping out a text message to notice the gaping gap in the sidewalk and just dropped straight on in.

Now her parents are suing the city.

The story says nothing about whether there were warning signs or even barriers set up to block access to the open manhole. Nevertheless, this does not negate the fact that one should pay attention to where they are going, especially in a busy city.

How often have you seen someone walking or even worse, driving who are completely oblivious to anything else going on around them?

Hopefully Alexa is okay but one thing for sure – I would imagine she will pay more attention when walking about in the city in the future, despite the fact as to whether her parents will succeed in suing the city or not.

A construction crew using coordinates from a global positioning system demolished a 60-year-old home in Carrollton earlier this week. Problem – it was the wrong house.

The home’s owner, Al Byrd of Atlanta, said he heard about the mistake when a neighbor called him to tell him the house he grew up in — along with his family heirlooms — had been destroyed and thrown into dumpsters.

Luckily, no one was living in the house at the time. Byrd said his father built the house by hand in 1950. He is also talking with an attorney but hasn’t made any decisions on what to do.

He said he’s gotten an apology from the companies who made the mistake. If it were my house, aplogies would only be the beginning of recompenses I’d expect from these dipnoids.

Original story found at Fox News.

In Branch, Arkansas, a man who police suspect may have been trying to steal electricity was electrocuted and fell 30 feet from a power pole. In addition, when police arrived to investigate the incident, they found a methamphetamine lab in his home.

Achterberg was electrocuted and fell to the ground. Roy Achterberg reportedly broke his back, neck, pelvis and his organs were hardened from the electricity, leaving him in critical condition. Achterberg placed a metal ladder on the pole and tried to siphon the electricity with jumper cables.

While deputies were investigating the theft of electricity, they found a meth lab in Achterberg’s home. The fifth judicial Drug Task Force cleaned up the chemcials.

Deputies said if Achterberg is released from the hospital he will be charged with theft of services and running a meth lab.

Original story at 4029tv.com.

A British driver has blamed his GPS navigation unit for leaving his car teetering on the edge of a cliff after he followed its instructions. Robert Jones said he trusted his navigational system and continued to follow it when it told him the steep, narrow footpath he was driving on was a road. Go figure!

Car dragged from cliff top after sat nav 'nightmare'. Pic: Ross Parry/Halifax Courier

Jones, who is from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, northern England, now has a court date for driving without due care and attention. This after his BMW nearly plunged down a 100-foot cliff in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, on Sunday. He was only stopped from falling after the vehicle rammed into a wire fence.

The 43-year-old, who works as a driver, said he relies on his sat nav for his job and described the incident as a “nightmare”.

He told the Halifax Evening Courier, “It kept insisting the path was a road, even as it was getting narrower and steeper, so I just trusted it. You don’t expect to be taken nearly over a cliff.”

One onlooker said, “It’s all well and good trusting your sat nav but how about trusting your eyes and when there’s not a road in front of you, don’t keep driving.”

Sounds like novel advice, unless you’re a dipnoid that is.