Hands On Some Hard Luck

It takes a lot of physical and mental preparation to enter the world-famous Hands on a Hard Body competition where contestants try to win a pick-up truck by seeing who can keep a hand on it the longest. Some people pass out, some people start singing songs to the sweet baby Jesus, some people shit their pants, some just up and quietly walk away to find the nearest K-Mart. That's what Richard Vega did at the start of day three to take himself out of the competition. Then he took a 12-gauge shotgun from the store and blew his brains out. He'll never win that damn truck now. From the Austin Statesman:

The 24-year-old walked away about 6 a.m., politely excusing himself just before a scheduled 15-minute break for competitors, a witness said.

Witnesses said Vega went directly to a Kmart across the street, threw a trash can through a window and rushed into the store.

"I saw the big trash can go in. He chunked it through the glass, and he went right after it," said Dru Laborde, a program director for KYKX radio and a media participant in the contest. "It was the most surreal thing I've ever seen in my life."

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Mike Maris, a contest judge, said that Vega was acting normally and that he thought Vega would be one of the top two or three finishers.

"He handled himself very well. He was very calm," Maris said.

Ginger Nimmons, another judge, said: "Typically . . . you don't normally start getting the serious hallucinations until a little bit later, especially somebody so young and in good shape."

24-year-old shoots himself in store after quitting truck contest [Austin Statesman, reg. req.]
Truck contest hopeful kills self in East Texas [Houstin Chronicle]