Refrigerators + Cellphones = Death

Next time your friends throw a large household appliance at you from four stories up, think twice before deciding to answer your cellphone, even if it's your boss calling.

A man who was crushed by a refrigerator Tuesday was goofing around with co-workers who pushed the appliance from a fourth-floor porch, according to the Milwaukee medical examiner’s report.

The dead man was identified as Rafa Chmura, 33, of Franklin.

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Chmura was at ground level. According to the report, other workers had first removed a hot water heater from a third floor apartment, also by tossing it over a railing, and the men decided to toss the refrigerator so it would crash onto the hot water heater.

The two men who tossed the refrigerator, according to the report, said they called down to Chmura, who jokingly responded, “Go ahead, I’ll catch it.”

At about the same time, the boss called Chmura’s cell phone. His cell phone was broken in the mishap.

“He might have answered the cell phone,” according to the report, “at which time the 170 pound refrigerator was coming over the edge.”

When the co-workers saw Chmura on the ground they at first thought he was joking, but, realizing he had been hurt, they called 911, according to the report.

Chmura suffered severe trauma to the back of his head.

Chmura is survived by a wife and two school-age children.

It's a shame the cellphone was broken in the "mishap."

[Daily Reporter]