Today's Trivia - Cactus Seeks Revenge

I know I shouldn’t derive any type of satisfaction from this story. But, no matter how I look at it, there is some kind of poetic justice in the outcome of this incident that you can’t help but...appreciate.

Let’s start with a little information first:

According to Wikipedia, cactus plugging is the practice of vandalizing or destroying a cactus, usually a saguaro, for fun. Typically the cactus is cut open, drained, then packed with explosives and ignited. In another variation, the vandal simply shoots bullets into the cactus body until portions fall off or the entire cactus falls over.

Don't mess with this plant...

The saguaro is a large, tree-sized cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in the U.S. state of Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, a small part of Baja California in the San Felipe Desert and an extremely small area of California, U.S. The saguaro blossom is the State Wildflower of Arizona.

The saguaro is a tall cactus that can grow anywhere from 40 to 60 feet. For the first 75 years of its life, it only has a huge central trunk; its distinctive outstretched and upwards-bent arms develop later, if at all. The usual lifespan is 150 to 200 years, though some have lived to be 300.

Now, here’s the story:

In 1982, David Grundman, bored and undoubtedly stupid, tried his plugging skills on a 26 foot tall Saguaro that was estimated to be 100 years old. The act of cactus plugging, if performed on a saguaro, is illegal, which he may or may not have known. And which he may or may not have cared about. In any case, I don’t think that he ever imagined that the cactus was not going down without a fight.

After shooting away at the poor saguaro for awhile, one of its arms detached and fell on him. Needless to say that David Grundman was crushed to death. Not only are the nail-like spikes of these giant cacti lethal, but when rain is plentiful and the saguaro is fully hydrated it can weigh between 3200-4800 pounds. That’s very heavy. As Grundman found out that day. The hard way.

Don't mess with Mother Nature's children....