Take a look at the picture above. Yes, that’s a motorcycle up an electrical pole. Tangled in high-voltage electrical wires, no less. Now, if you’re a die-hard biker with a hint of the Asperger’s, your first question is “What type of bike is that?” For normal people, on the other hand, the first thought that springs to mind is “How the hell did that get up there?”
Well, as incredulous as it sounds, the “how” in the hell that motorcycle ended up 40 feet off the ground is a hot-air balloon. The un-asked “where” is Sao Paulo, Brazil. As to exactly what happened, the local paper, Sao Paulo’s G1 Globo, probably describes it best: “A balloon that fell in the early hours of Monday on Rua Alto Belo, in Aricanduva, East Zone of Sao Paulo caught fire and hit real estate and a daycare center.
“Before, it had passed through Itaquera, also in the same region, where it dragged and overturned a car on Jaguaruna Street, and raised a motorcycle, hoisting it into the air and onto electrical wiring of the pole on Avenida Pires do Rio.” Not mentioned is that 400,000 homes were without electricity for a few hours as a result, and the entire neighbourhood had to be evacuated for fear of electrocution.
And, pity poor Kaue Ramos, 20. He was sleeping with his mother — hey, no judgments — when he woke to a crashing noise and saw “a balloon passing by, which dragged my motorcycle, knocked over my mother’s car, and hit the neighbor’s car. And it dragged my motorcycle to the wire. It lifted the motorcycle and hit the wire.” And, no, because I know you were wondering, the motorcycle was not insured.
As if this story isn’t harsh enough, the Daily Mail says that releasing an unauthorized balloon in Brazil can get you three years behind bars and, according to G1, police “have some investigations underway,” since the sparks caused a fire in a local home.
Despite all this edification, however, I still feel no closure. My burning question, in fact, remains unanswered: what type of motorcycle is that?
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