Man Builds Robot, It Kills Him

Yes, I know, ho hum.
Except that it's not just a story!
Well, Ok, it is a story, as in newspaper story... but it's also true!
Well, I think it's true, though i haven't snopesed it or anything.
Seems plausible, I mean, Australia and all...
Pretty sad, but ingenious.
Poor guy.

P

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article3591734.ece
"March 20, 2008
Man, 81, kills himself with shot from 'suicide robot'
Fran Yeoman

An elderly man has killed himself by programming a robot to shoot him
in the head after building the machine from plans downloaded from the
internet.

Francis Tovey, 81, who lived alone in Burleigh Heads on the Australian
Gold Coast, was found dead in his driveway.

According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, he had been unhappy about the
demands of relatives living elsewhere in Australia that he should move
out of his home and into care.

Notes left by Mr Tovey -- who was born in England -- revealed that he
had scoured the internet for plans before constructing his complex
machine, which involved a jigsaw power tool and was connected to a .22
semi-automatic pistol loaded with four bullets. It could fire multiple
shots once triggered remotely.

At 7am on Tuesday he set the robot up in the driveway of his =A3450,000
house and activated it.

His notes suggested that Mr Tovey chose to kill himself in the
driveway because he knew there were workmen building a new house next
door who would find his body.

The scheme worked, as carpenter Daniel Skewes heard gunshots and ran
to Mr Tovey's home. "I thought I heard three shots and when we ran
next door he was lying on the driveway with gunshot wounds to the
head," Mr Skewes told the GCB.

A neighbour, who did not want to be named, told the newspaper that Mr
Tovey had lived at his home on Gabrielle Grove since 1984. "He was a
really marvellous man, an ideal neighbour and I will miss him
greatly," she said.

"He was born in England, like I was, and we used to enjoy our tea
together. He had visitors from England and family interstate from
somewhere far away in Australia.

"There was no inkling of anything amiss, it is just very sad." "