Man's pond mysteriously drained
When George Terry Dinnie of Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania returned from a 90-minute walk on Monday, he was surprised to find that his 2,500 gallon koi pond had mysteriously been emptied. Police are investigating. Foul play is suspected. From the Morning Call:
(Dinnie) said his first guess was that the pond leaked, but he decided a leak couldn't work that fast. The other alternatives are hard to imagine, too, he said."Pond disappears while owner walks" (via Fortean Times)
"How can somebody exhaust water that fast?" he asked. "They pumped the water out faster than I can fill it up again. It's as weird as weird can be."
A swale in his lot seemed wetter than it should have been when he returned from the walk, he said, and "the ladies on both sides of me said they saw water spraying out" while he was on his walk.
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If you don't know what a "swale" is:
Definition for swale
- small valley: a depression between slopes that provides for drainage
- low area of moist land: a low area of land, especially one that is moist or marshy
(from Encarta)
So what happened to the koi? Were they gone too?
Doesn't this sometimes happen before an earthquake? As a result of tiny tremors or something like that?
If you read the original article, they koi mostly died, along with the water plants.
Word to the wise: Sinkhole is a high probability.
When he says he decided a leak could lose all that water that fast, he was actually thinking of water seeping through the walls. Did the decorative pond have a concrete bottom? Perhaps it cracked? With a big enough hole, it can drain in much less time than a 90 min walk.
"They" are to blame. Oh, those crazy "they" people.
"He said his first guess was that the pond leaked, but he decided a leak couldn't work that fast." What? Why is that, because it doesn't fit in with his personification of the event?
FTA: ""Somebody just doesn't like me, and I don't know who."
Yikes. This guys is scary.
Siphoning is probably the culprit.
You know what sounds suspicious about this story? Who takes 90-minute walks? That's crazy! It's almost an hour and a half without internet!
I think the guy decided that the pond couldn't leak that fast because he probably re-filled the pond as soon as he could. Koi can survive out of water for an hour or two, but nobody would want to do that to their fish.
I'm guessing that he called the police after he re-filled the pond, and that the pond stayed re-filled, making him believe that it wasn't a leak.
There's plenty of water pumps out where that could empty a pond in half an hour, (google 5000 gallon/hour pump) and that rate of flow's pretty high, so if he's in a low area, and people on both sides of it said they saw water spraying, it's a good chance that someone came along with a pump like that and performed mischief of some sort.
@8 I always liked what Willie Nelson said about "They," "If I ever find that They, I'm going to kill that son of a bitch."
It took more than 90 minutes, but our 'Koi' pond nearly emptied itself overnight when the fountain head got clogged in a particular way as to shoot 3 long sprays of water over the edge of the pond. The pond (vinyl liner) collapsed & it took me 10 hours to get it back into shape & filled again. There was about 8 inches of water left when I discovered it & though all the fish were upset I didn't lose any.
Sorry. I was really thirsty.
@bardfinn: Yep! Sinkhole was the first thing I thought, too.
Our steam powered flying saucer ran out of water. Sorry about the fish.
--The Greys
Clifford The Big Red Dog?
Any problem can be solved with the suitable application of explosives. For example, how to empty a pond very quickly. Or, how to prevent people from emptying your pond in the future.
(By the way, if you think the first one isn't true, you haven't found the correct application yet. :p )
The obvious answer is: funnel clouds of fish.
Hey, I took advantage of the chance to refuel my fusion engine AND go fishing. Wouldn't you?
I can't seem to find a link at the moment, but there was a similar story on the east coast - maybe PA? - last year. If memory serves, I think in that case, an entire swimming pool was mysteriously emptied in approx. 30 minutes? Have aliens switched from abducting "bags of mostly water", to abducting "small bodies of water"?
And my socks have mysteriously disappeared too.
were they valuable koi?
Guys check this out :
Chile media blames UFO as big lake disappears over night
http://ufoblogger.blogspot.com/2009/08/chile-media-blame-ufo-as-big-lake.html
Who takes 90-minute walks? That's crazy! It's almost an hour and a half without internet!
I'll bet he has an iPhone, what other explanation is possible.