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Old Glass Jug

3 min read

A few years ago our home was broken into while we were at work and a bunch of valuable (though not expensive) stuff was stolen. One of our more interesting bits was our 10 gallon glass water jug. It was filled, to about 3-5" with loose change. We figured, once it disappeared that we'd never see it again.

[Edit: Lisa says the Jug was left, just the change was taken, but the Police took the jug to print it.]

Then, last summer, the local police department called and said they had some evidence for us to pick up so I walked over and was pleasantly surprised to be handed my 10 gallon glass water jug (without the change). I was pretty stoked to get anything back from the robbery but I was really glad to get the jug back because I'd never seen another one like it.

When I brought it home I "hid" it behind our bedroom door and then, a a few months ago, Lisa moved it into our bathroom next to my sink. Last night, when I came home from work, I headed upstairs and much to my dismay I saw the jug shattered into a jagged mess on the floor. The top 2/3 of the jug was in pieces and what remained of the base was a horridly sharp and wicked looking set of glass spikes.

Shannon was taking a shower in our bathroom so I asked her if she knew what happened and she said she broke it when she fell. I looked at the jug and the bits of glass and didn't see any blood so I asked her to explain. She said that as she got into the shower she was carrying her shampoo bottle and then slipped and fell backwards out of the shower. As she fell the bottle flew from her hand and smashed into the jug shattering it.

Her fall happened while I was driving home and Lisa was out walking the dog. Had it been her that had hit the jug she would have died. There is no question in my mind; the way the jug shattered leaves little doubt. Instead, she was completely unharmed and unconcerned about the shattered glass and just hopped in the shower. I'm not sure how she planned on getting out of the bathroom when her shower was done considering how many large shards of glass were on the floor between the shower and the exit.

[Edit: Lisa says' Shannon actually did leave the bathroom to look for Lisa to tell her about the broken jug but didn't find her so went back in and then took her shower. If this happened I don't see how her feet didn't get sliced up.]

Fortunately she is OK and I was able to find and clean up the glass before she had to get out of the shower; at which point Lisa carried her out just to be on the safe side so I could vacuum any tiny pieces up. It's pretty amazing, really, to think that our jug survived a theft from our second floor, 4-5 years of who knows what kind of handling before coming back to us, and then was broken by a shampoo bottle.

Now our loose change is in a tuperware box. It seems unlikely that will ever become a deadly trap.