Doofus Of The Day #904

Today's award goes to a young man in Portugal.

A young man's attempt to take a selfie snapshot with the statue of a 16th century Portuguese king ended badly when the 126-year-old statue crashed to the ground and shattered, police said on Wednesday.

The man, whom police did not identify, accidentally toppled Dom Sebastian's statue after climbing up to its pedestal outside the ornate Rossio railway station in central Lisbon just before midnight on Tuesday.

He tried to flee the scene but police caught him. He will appear before a judge at a later date.

There's more at the link.

There's a legend about King Sebastian.  It's unclear that his body was ever found, although Philip II of Spain asserted that he'd buried his remains.  Pretenders later arose, claiming to be him, but all were exposed as fraudulent.  It was long believed (and may still be believed by the more credulous) that Sebastian was/is a Portuguese version of the legend of the 'sleeping king', who will return to save his country in its hour of need.

All I can say is, after the way his statue has just been treated, he may think twice about returning . . .




Peter