March 2005
SAN ONOFRE (Free Press) - Anyone who has watched the movie Caddyshack will have a good idea of the resilience of gophers. In the spring of 2005, three employees of the State Parks caught a gopher at the point in good condition. Their subsequent actions show that they were unfamiliar with the movie, and the vengeful nature of gophers. One Ranger and two maintenance men took the gopher into the storage room of bathroom #2 and apparently decided to kill it. No other reason for spraying cleaning solvent on the gopher seems plausible.
The solvent was designed to remove tar from surfaces. It freezes the surface tar and makes it easier to scrape it up. State Beaches have an unsurprising need for such solvents. But the gopher was stronger than the tar. Three cans later, it was still alive and kicking.
They paused for thought, and the ranger, who was most badly injured, attempted to light a cigarette in the fume-filled room. The subsequent explosion injured the three men, and sixteen surfers were treated for ruptured ear drums..
In the aftermath of the explosion, the persecuted gopher was discovered unharmed and clinging to a wall. He was released back into the wild at the point where he is expected to enjoy years of free drinks in gopher pubs as he tells the story of his brush with death.
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