Whoops, where did that telephone pole come from?

Where did that come from!

I just ran across these photos and thought I would tell you about this. We were relaxing Christmas Eve afternoon, killing time before going to visit family and then to a neighbor's Christmas party (which was to start at 10 p.m.) when we heard a big BOOM! It sounded like a big truck had crashed into our muro (concrete fence). I grabbed the camera (for evidentiary purposes if needed) and ran outside, because I figured the culprits would take off rather than taking responsibility for the damage.

As it turned out, it wasn't our muro that they ran into, it was this telephone pole across the street. I couldn't imagine how fast the truck must have been going to not be able to veer away in time considering that there is no traffic, no parked cars or anything on our street. We also suspected that they had been drinking, since it was Christmas Eve and what better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus than getting soused and driving a dump truck around town. ;-/

They said that the steering and/or brakes went out on the truck, so I guess we were lucky that they weren't pointed in the other direction and that there were no people or houses for that power pole to fall onto.

No doubt that force would have knocked our wall down and probably our two avocado trees to boot. El Jefe said that it didn't seem like the driver had been drinking. Neither he nor the other occupant were injured though they were scared to death about what their boss was going to say. That's a nice crease through the center of that truck, though, so I still think they must have been driving too fast. (El Jefe no longer leaves the car parked in the street in front of the house − ever!)

This caused a big excitement in our neighborhood with several neighbors stopping by to chat (and laugh) about the situation. Not so funny was the fact that our internet and then our power and later the water went out. Christmas Eve! I had visions of not having electricity for days due to the holidays.

Surprisingly, La ENEE came out the same day and temporarily rigged up the lines so we and our other two affected neighbors were powered back up after only a couple of hours. Good thing, as our neighbors were the ones having a Christmas party for 50 people! Not so surprisingly, La ENEE has never been back. I don't know who is responsible to replace the power pole, but apparently it is no one.

Someone must have called the police. Surprisingly, they came to our neighborhood. But also not surprisingly, they merely slowed down the car, gave the situation a bored look, and kept on driving. Not their problem.

A few weeks ago, several guys came along and spent the day extracting all the mangled metal rods out of the pole for reuse or resale. The concrete itself disappeared. I have no idea who took it or why. Nothing goes to waste in Honduras.