Oh poo! Student describes how Tinder date ended in bizarre rescue
Bill Smith
LONDON, Bill Smith (dpa) - A student's Tinder date in the British city of Bristol ended in a bizarre fashion after the woman he met got wedged upside down in a narrow gap between two windows while retrieving her own faeces, according to the student and firefighters who rescued her.
A dramatic online account of the events by the woman's date, Bristol University postgraduate student Liam Smyth, prompted some to ask if the story could be a hoax.
But Avon Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that it had rescued the woman and backed Smyth's story.
"It isn't an urban myth... It is one of those things of reality being stranger than fiction," a spokesman for the fire service told dpa by telephone.
Despite the inglorious finale of their first date on August 7, the couple have already met again, Smyth told the BBC on Wednesday.
The date began at a Nando's restaurant and continued with them watching a film and drinking a bottle of wine at his home.
It took the odd turn after the unidentified woman used the toilet and was unable to flush away her faeces, Smyth wrote on a Gofundme page, set up on Tuesday to ask for donations to repair a broken window.
"She returned with a panicked look in her eye, and told me she had something to tell me," he said.
To avoid embarrassment, the woman said she had thrown the faeces out of a window, unaware that there was a second window behind it.
"Being an amateur gymnast, she was convinced that she could reach into the window and pull the poo out," Smyth said.
She did eventually retrieve it with his help, but he was forced to call the fire service after he was unable to pull her out of the gap between the windows.
Smyth posted photographs of a woman trapped upside down between two windows and of firefighters apparently freeing her.
One of the firefighters who rescued her, Chris Crothers, said he found the woman "well and truly stuck, with her face squashed against the glass."
"I started chatting to her and she told the whole story about how she had become stuck," Crothers said in a fire service statement on Wednesday.
"She was quite open about the whole thing - I think by then she had gone past the point of embarrasment!" he said.
"Although she had been upside down for some time, with the company of a few spiders, she was absolutely fine and just pleased to be free.
"We see strange things all the time, but this certainly has to be one of the strangest - purely because of why she was stuck," Crothers said.
Smyth had raised more than 2,000 pounds (2,600 dollars) by Wednesday afternoon after appealing for 200 pounds to repair the window.
He pledged to give the cash to charities, including one for firefighters, after he received several offers to repair the window free of charge.
Smyth told the BBC he had met the woman again and they "got on very, very well and she's a lovely girl."
"And we've already got the most difficult stuff out of the way first," he said.
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"It isn't an urban myth... It is one of those things of reality being stranger than fiction," a spokesman for the fire service told dpa by telephone.
Despite the inglorious finale of their first date on August 7, the couple have already met again, Smyth told the BBC on Wednesday.
The date began at a Nando's restaurant and continued with them watching a film and drinking a bottle of wine at his home.
It took the odd turn after the unidentified woman used the toilet and was unable to flush away her faeces, Smyth wrote on a Gofundme page, set up on Tuesday to ask for donations to repair a broken window.
"She returned with a panicked look in her eye, and told me she had something to tell me," he said.
To avoid embarrassment, the woman said she had thrown the faeces out of a window, unaware that there was a second window behind it.
"Being an amateur gymnast, she was convinced that she could reach into the window and pull the poo out," Smyth said.
She did eventually retrieve it with his help, but he was forced to call the fire service after he was unable to pull her out of the gap between the windows.
Smyth posted photographs of a woman trapped upside down between two windows and of firefighters apparently freeing her.
One of the firefighters who rescued her, Chris Crothers, said he found the woman "well and truly stuck, with her face squashed against the glass."
"I started chatting to her and she told the whole story about how she had become stuck," Crothers said in a fire service statement on Wednesday.
"She was quite open about the whole thing - I think by then she had gone past the point of embarrasment!" he said.
"Although she had been upside down for some time, with the company of a few spiders, she was absolutely fine and just pleased to be free.
"We see strange things all the time, but this certainly has to be one of the strangest - purely because of why she was stuck," Crothers said.
Smyth had raised more than 2,000 pounds (2,600 dollars) by Wednesday afternoon after appealing for 200 pounds to repair the window.
He pledged to give the cash to charities, including one for firefighters, after he received several offers to repair the window free of charge.
Smyth told the BBC he had met the woman again and they "got on very, very well and she's a lovely girl."
"And we've already got the most difficult stuff out of the way first," he said.
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