America is the greatest nation on earth--if that means great at being stupid, that is.

A few years back, this guy buys an expensive 40,000 dollar (20,000 pounds) SUV. So, that very weekend, Mr. Proud New Owner decides to celebrate his good fortune in obtaining expensive new auto, by taking his best friend and his hunting dog, duck shooting.

Now, it's early spring, and where they were living, there still was thick ice on the lake. So, Mr. Proud Owner takes his expensive new SUV, his friend and his dog, out on the ice to shoot ducks. One problem though. In order for them to shoot ducks, the ducks have to have a place to land. That means a hole in the ice. But there isn't any--and it would have to be a very large hole indeed--too large for a mere ice saw.

Problem solved. Mr. Proud New Owner goes into the back of the truck, and pulls out a stick of dynamite. But, he can't very well just light it and set it down, oh no. So, what does he do? Why light it and toss it as far away as possible. Oh yes, very smart--except for one thing: The dog is a Labador Retriever.

So, old Rex sees "dad" throw the red stick--ol' Rex just naturally--to his owner's horror, thinks it's a game of "fetch."

The dog grabs the dynamite and, tail wagging, trots back towards the expensive new SUV. The owner is yelling and waving his arms, he friend is yelling and waving his arms, and the dog is thinking this is a really fun game, and they want him to bring him the smoking stick, so he trots towards his owner a bit faster.

Then Mr. Proud New Owner gets an idea: shoot the dog. So, he does. One problem--it's bird shot, and all it does is stop the dog for a second. Confused and hurt, the dog decides to bravely carry on. Then, the friend shoots the dog. Really hurt and scared now, the dog does the first thing that comes natural to him: Run back to his owner as fast as he can, for protection--and hide under the brand new 40,000 dollar SUV.

Mr. Proud New Owner and his friend do the one thing left to them--run like hell.

So, The dog blew up, the SUV blew up, and both--what was left of them--promptly sank to the bottom of the lake.

Later, Mr. Proud New Owner, tried to collect from the insurance company, but was turned down. The reason: policy doesn't cover cars being destroyed by the illegal use of dynamite. And he still had to make a 450 dollar (225 pounds) a month car payment--which he hadn't even started doing yet.