WATCH: ‘Why women live longer’: Security guard shoots himself in foot

A video doing the rounds on social media has South Africans in all kinds of stitches. It captures the unfortunate moment a security guard shot himself in the foot.

With a shotgun, nogal.

We’ll include the video below, but before we continue, do note: The veracity of this fine tale could not be confirmed at the time of publishing.

Security guard shoots foot

We could not determine where or when this took place. And even though it’s been shared by South Africans online, the debate is out about whether it actually took place in SA or not.

WATCH: Security guard in disbelief

That moment when you realize a firearm is not a toy. #AccidentalDischarge pic.twitter.com/BCEDXnJdYT

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Cancel culture 101: Navigating the business of social media

— CrimeInSA (@sa_crime) February 14, 2023

While some of the items on the shelves do not look familiar at all, one could argue the trolley looks suspiciously like a Shoprite trolley.

But then again, many places have red trolleys. Maybe it didn’t even happen in South Africa at all.

But I digress. Back to our trouble guard.

His day probably started out like any other, and he likely enjoyed his morning coffee without realising he’d end up with a wounded foot a few hours later.

Another reason why women live longer

— Phïłąnï Mdąkąnę (@philani_md) February 14, 2023

In the short video clip shared online, the security guard – and we know he’s a security guard because his T-shirt tells us so – can be seen standing in an aisle.

As he leaned against a shelve, shotgun in hand, his day suddenly took a turn for the worse. Yep, you guessed it…

The shotgun went off and he shot himself in the foot.

Game face on

One can imagine how your entire world would turn upside down if that happened. But not this guy, no. He calmly looks at his wounded foot in disbelief.

Net so Hwiphiii pic.twitter.com/RVAtrLvcPh

— Lepantsula (@thekelo_Teekay) February 14, 2023

Perhaps he was in shock, or maybe he just wanted to appear a-okay, but for a few seconds, he acted as if everything was under control.

The blood on the tiles tells a different story, however. As the pain becomes too much to bear, the security guard eventually hops off-camera on one foot.

First time in my life seeing the idiom “shooting yourself on the foot” happens. It exist. It is not myth.

— Mandla. (@Daddy_waKhanya) February 14, 2023

Of course, South Africans had thoughts and were willing to share on Twitter, proving once again why we really don’t deserve the internet.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Oh boy! Child apologises after caught driving father’s car

South Africans react

One netizen said this is a fine example of “why women live longer,” while another added matter-of-factly: “Shotgun is not a walking stick.”

A Twitter user known as Lichy said: “There’s a lot going on here”, while others couldn’t help shooting off a pun or two (see what we did there?)

I finally l get it after all these years of hearing white people say..

*I shot myself in foot *…. pic.twitter.com/BIcF0Pvi9x

— Lou ☢️ (@go2goX) February 14, 2023

“Think he will be toeing the line from now on”, one said, while another added: “He was like I’m okay but then reality kicked in”.

While we could not verify the details of this video, we do know one thing: This was definitely not how he envisioned his day going.

It’s also safe to say this was (probably) the worst day on the job, shame.

He was like I’m okay but then reality kicked in pic.twitter.com/ifREP7eOgf

— Lotus (@_PrincessNkosi) February 14, 2023

ALSO READ: Security guards found safe after ‘mysteriously’ disappearing

Bystander Effect

On a serious note, someone said the only sad thing here “is no one came to him to help with first aid or something”.

This is called the Bystander Effect ^[1] or Bystander Apathy; it’s a social psychological theory in which humans are more likely to look on than assist someone in need of help.

It was initially referred to as ‘diffusion of responsibility’, and coined by social psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané in the late 1960s, following the murder of Kitty Genovese.

Kitty Genovese’s murder

Genovese was a young woman murdered in Queens, New York, in 1964, at 3 am while walking home after her shift at a local bar.

She noticed a man was following her and called out to her neighbours to help, but instead, they watched from the safety of their apartment windows as she was stabbed repeatedly. ^[2]

The incident was only reported to the police 50 minutes later (and to their credit, they arrived within two minutes). When asked why nobody helped Genovese, their excuses were:

• I didn’t want to get involved
• Franky, we were afraid
• I was tired, I went back to bed.

Sources:

^{[1] From Empathy to Apathy: The Bystander Effect Revisited, Ruud Hortensius and Beatrice de Gelder, 2018
[2] Bystander Effect and Diffusion of Responsibility, Udochi Emeghara; Simply Psychology, September 2020.}