00:01Stephen Webber.
00:02This is a story about a man who literally wrote his own tragic ending.
00:08Stephen Webber Jr. was on a bucket list vacation with his girlfriend Kenesha Antoine, an attorney from Louisiana.
00:15They were staying at the Manta Resort off Pemba Island, Tanzania,
00:20in one of those insane underwater rooms with a bedroom that looks directly into the Indian Ocean through a giant
00:26glass window.
00:27You know, the kind of place you see on Instagram and think, who actually stays there?
00:33Well, Stephen and Kenesha did, and Stephen had a plan.
00:38On September 19th, 2019, he decided to make the grandest of grand gestures.
00:44No scuba gear, no safety diver, no buddy.
00:48Just a mask, a snorkel, some fins, and a laminated, handwritten note.
00:53He free-dived down to the outside of their underwater bedroom window while Kenesha filmed from inside.
01:00She saw him press the note against the glass.
01:04It read,
01:05I can't hold my breath long enough to tell you everything I love about you.
01:10Let that sink in.
01:12He then flipped the note over.
01:14On the back, it said,
01:16Will you please be my wife?
01:18Marry me?
01:19He pulled out a ring box, showed it to her through the glass, smiled, and then he turned to swim
01:26up to the surface.
01:27But he never made it.
01:29He never broke the surface.
01:32Kenesha watched and waited, and he just disappeared into the blue.
01:38Resort staff were called.
01:40His body was recovered nearby.
01:42The cause of death was drowning, most likely a shallow water blackout.
01:46He had zero backup, zero margin for error.
01:50Just a man, a ring, and a terribly miscalculated breath hold at depth.
01:56The note he wrote as a romantic joke became, um, his epitaph.
02:01His girlfriend later posted on Facebook that her answer was,
02:05Yes, yes, a million times yes.
02:08But he never got to hear it.
02:11What the hell, man?
02:12He literally predicted his own death on a laminated piece of paper.
02:16And the worst part?
02:17The video of him at the window, smiling, holding up that ring?
02:22It went viral.
02:24Millions of people watched the last moments of a man who drowned for a proposal.
02:30Dimitrina Dimitrova.
02:32All right, from the depths of the ocean to the edge of a cliff.
02:36This one is just pure, unfiltered stupidity.
02:43Dimitrina Dimitrova, a 29-year-old from Bulgaria,
02:46had just arrived in Ibiza two days earlier to visit her boyfriend and look for work.
02:50In late January 2015, he took her to a scenic spot on the island's west coast,
02:57a cliff overlooking the sea, about 65 feet high.
03:00Beautiful view.
03:02Romantic setting.
03:03He proposed.
03:05She, overcome with joy, said yes.
03:08And then, in a moment of what can only be described as a catastrophic brain fart,
03:13she started jumping up and down, in excitement, on the edge of a 65-foot cliff.
03:22You can see where this is going, can't you?
03:24She lost her balance.
03:26One second, she's celebrating the start of a new life.
03:29The next, she's plummeting 65 feet onto the rocks below.
03:34Emergency services were called, and she was somehow still alive when they arrived.
03:38But she died shortly after from a heart attack brought on by her massive injuries.
03:42The police called it a tragic freak accident.
03:47I mean, yeah, it was tragic.
03:49But freak accident?
03:51She was jumping on the edge of a cliff.
03:54That's not a freak accident.
03:56That's a predictable outcome.
03:58I'm sorry, but who does that?
04:00You're on a cliff.
04:01A cliff!
04:03The one place on earth where jumping is the absolute last thing you should do.
04:08It's like getting a winning lottery ticket and celebrating by juggling chainsaws.
04:14The international media linked her case to a Polish couple who had fallen off a cliff in Portugal
04:19while taking a selfie around the same time.
04:21It's like there was a whole season of people just walking off cliffs.
04:26She literally celebrated herself to death.
04:29And the boyfriend had to watch the whole thing.
04:33One moment he's the happiest man alive.
04:35The next, he's watching his fiancé disappear over the edge.
04:39That's a level of whiplash no one should ever experience.
04:44Yeshim Demir
04:46And if you thought that was a one-off, think again.
04:49Because apparently, cliffs and proposals are a lethal combination that nobody is learning from.
04:55In July 2023, in Turkey, a man named Nizamatin Gursu took his girlfriend, Yeshim Demir,
05:02to a beautiful seaside cliff to propose at sunset.
05:05He chose the spot specifically because he wanted to make a romantic memory.
05:10And oh, he did.
05:12Just not the one he was hoping for.
05:14She said yes, and to celebrate, they decided to hang out right there on the cliff edge and have a
05:19few drinks.
05:21Because what could possibly go wrong when you mix alcohol in a 100-foot drop?
05:26You know, just casually sipping cocktails on the edge of a 10-story building with no railing.
05:31Totally normal behavior.
05:33According to her fiancé, everything happened at once.
05:37One moment they were celebrating, the next,
05:40Yeshim lost her balance and just disappeared over the edge.
05:44She plunged 100 feet to her death.
05:47He chose the spot for the romance, for the view, for the memory.
05:51And now, that memory is of his fiancé falling to her death moments after he proposed.
05:57It's the same brand of stupid as the last case, just with alcohol as a mixer.
06:01And honestly, the alcohol makes it worse.
06:04Because at least Dimitrina's death was a split-second lapse in judgment.
06:08This was a sustained, ongoing decision to sit on the edge of a deadly cliff
06:13while getting progressively less coordinated.
06:16It's treating a sheer, deadly drop like it's a park bench.
06:19The universe gives you these beautiful, dangerous places,
06:22and it expects you to have at least a tiny bit of respect for them.
06:26But no.
06:27Let's get engaged and then get drunk on the edge of this giant hole.
06:32It's a miracle only one of them fell.
06:35Brad Parker
06:36This next one is a special kind of stupid,
06:40reserved for people who live on the edge and can't resist one more victory lap.
06:46Brad Parker was a 36-year-old yoga instructor
06:49and experienced climber from Sebastopol, California.
06:52On August 16th, 2014, he and his girlfriend, Jainee Dial,
06:59climbed Cathedral Peak in Yosemite National Park together,
07:03roped up, safe, proper technique.
07:06At the summit, with the entire Sierra Nevada spread out below them, he proposed.
07:12She said yes.
07:13He called his father and told him it was the happiest day of his life.
07:19Ah, a perfect moment.
07:21A perfect day.
07:23But for Brad, it wasn't enough.
07:26After they descended from Cathedral Peak, he decided to go climb nearby Mattis Crest.
07:31Alone.
07:32And without ropes.
07:35This is called free soloing, and it means if you slip, even once, you die.
07:41No second chances.
07:43No do-overs.
07:44So, after an already long, physically demanding, and emotionally charged day,
07:50after the adrenaline of a proposal, after the fatigue of a full-roped climb,
07:56he went for a high-risk solo climb on an exposed ridgeline.
08:01Other climbers in the area saw him fall.
08:04He just slipped.
08:07And that was it.
08:08He died from the injuries on impact.
08:11Among climbers, his death was discussed as a textbook example of how emotional highs,
08:17fatigue, and overconfidence can stack up into a fatal decision.
08:22He had his perfect day, his perfect moment.
08:25The love of his life had just said yes,
08:28and he threw it all away for one more adrenaline rush.
08:32His father told reporters that Brad called him to say it was the happiest day of his life.
08:37And then, hours later, he got a different call.
08:41A victory lap that ended at the bottom of a cliff.
08:45You know, sometimes the universe gives you the win,
08:48and you just need to take it and go home.
08:52The Pyrotechnic Artist
08:53This story is just dark and deeply, deeply ironic.
08:59On December 26, 2015, in Chelyabinsk, Russia,
09:04a man decided he wanted his proposal to be extra special.
09:07So he went online and hired a pyrotechnics company to stage a private fireworks show,
09:13as one does in Russia.
09:15The pyrotechnic artist, an employee of the firm,
09:18came to the location and set up the fireworks outside in the parking area.
09:22The client went upstairs to propose to his girlfriend.
09:24The plan was simple.
09:26He popped the question,
09:27then called the fireworks guy on his phone to cue the grand finale.
09:31So the proposal happens.
09:33She says yes.
09:34He makes the call.
09:36Downstairs, the pyrotechnic artist lights it up.
09:39And then, one of the firework rockets misfired.
09:43Instead of shooting up into the sky,
09:45it shot sideways and hit the pyrotechnic artist directly in the neck.
09:50A high-velocity rocket to the cervical spine.
09:53He was killed instantly.
09:56The groom-to-be, completely unaware of what just happened,
09:59finished celebrating with his new fiancée upstairs.
10:02He poured the drinks, they kissed, they were happy.
10:06And then he went downstairs to his car to get a bottle of champagne.
10:10And that's when he found the fireworks guy, lying dead on the ground.
10:15I'm sorry, but what the fuck, bro?
10:17The one person who dies in this whole romantic spectacle
10:21is the poor bastard who was just trying to do his job.
10:24He died alone in a parking lot from a rocket to the neck
10:27while the happy couple was toasting upstairs, completely oblivious.
10:32Russian state news agency TASS reported the story,
10:35and it sparked a conversation about safety standards in small pyrotechnic firms.
10:40But honestly, it's the ultimate example of a proposal stunt
10:44going horribly, horribly wrong for the one person
10:47who had absolutely nothing to do with the romance.
10:52Okay, this last one isn't a proposal,
10:55but it's so insanely stupid and romance-adjacent
10:58that it absolutely has to be included.
11:01It's 2025 in Sibenik, Croatia.
11:04A wedding is happening in front of the beautiful Cathedral of St. James,
11:08a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
11:10It's a gorgeous day.
11:12People are celebrating.
11:13The bride is happy.
11:14The groom is happy.
11:16Everyone is having a great time.
11:18And then, one of the guests, a 52-year-old man,
11:22decides the wedding needs more...
11:24flair.
11:25Literally.
11:27He decides to start firing off signal rockets and flares.
11:31In a crowd.
11:32In front of a cathedral.
11:34In a tight urban space.
11:37At a wedding.
11:38With people everywhere.
11:40What could possibly go wrong?
11:43Well, due to what police later called
11:45incompetent handling,
11:47and I think that might be the understatement of the century,
11:50he fired one of the rockets incorrectly.
11:53It didn't go up.
11:54It went sideways.
11:56And it struck a 35-year-old female guest.
11:59She was rushed to Sibenik General Hospital,
12:02but died from her injuries.
12:03The guy who fired it later voluntarily handed over
12:07a whole arsenal of additional flares,
12:09handheld flares,
12:10and smoke signals to the police.
12:13He had more.
12:14He brought a whole bag of this shit to a wedding.
12:18A criminal investigation was opened,
12:20and Croatian police used the case to publicly warn
12:23about the dangers of pyrotechnics at celebrations.
12:26Because apparently,
12:28that needed to be said.
12:29He turned a wedding into a war zone
12:32because he thought firing military-grade signal rockets
12:35at a party was a good idea.
12:38It's a reminder that the stupidest person at an event
12:41isn't always the one getting married.
12:43Sometimes, it's the guest with the flare gun
12:46and zero common sense.
12:48Ha ha.
12:59A criminal investigation is a good idea.
13:00It's a good idea.
13:00It's a good idea.
13:00It's a good idea.
