Shoelaces As Seen In The News

News Story Excerpts – 2010

Laces save TA soldier from Taliban sniper

– The Daily Mirror (UK), 05-Dec-2010

A soldier was saved from a Taliban sniper – by his boot laces.

Lance Corporal Michael Davies, 31, bent down to tie up his laces a split-second before he was fired on.

Full story on The Daily Mirror website

Beckham's Newcastle ties

– Newcastle Herald (Australia), 27-Nov-2010

Eight-year-old Harrison Jones will never forget the day football royalty bent down to tie his shoelace, even though the junior rugby league player did not know who David Beckham was before yesterday.
...

“I was running around and he asked me if he could do my shoelace up and I said yes. I think it was pretty cool.”

Full story on The Newcastle Herald website

Movie prank led to marriage of 60 years

– Bay of Plenty Times (New Zealand), 20-Oct-2010

“I saw this pretty girl sitting in front of me and she had long beautiful plaits which were flowing over the back of her chair. So I took my shoelace out of my shoe and I tied her plaits to her seat,” said Mr Johns.

Imez believes she may have threw the shoelace back at him.

Full story on Bay of Plenty Times website

Man run over by his own truck

– The Post and Courier (USA), 20-Oct-2010

A 42-year-old man was injured Monday night when he was run over by his own pickup truck.
...

The man said he was backing up with the door open when his shoelace got caught under his tire and pulled him out of the truck, Brouthers said.

Full story on The Post and Courier website

Teen using shoelace to light candle sets house on fire

– NBC 10 News (USA), 04-Oct-2010

Investigators said Monday that a teenager who tried to a light a candle with a shoelace started a fire that left seven people homeless.
...

He couldn't reach the wick, so he set a shoelace on fire and tried to use it as a lighter.

Officials said the teenager threw away the shoelace in a wastebasket filled with tissues, which started smoking.

Full story on NBC 10 News website

Things are picking up for the bionic boy

– The Telegraph (UK), 06-Sep-2010

On July 22 my 13-year-old son, Patrick, tied his shoelaces. It was a moving occasion. For the first time in his life he had performed this routine but intricate task, on his own and unaided.
...

Patrick had become the youngest of the small number of people round the world – some 1,400 or so – fitted with the Touch Bionic prosthetic. He was the “bionic boy”.
...

It can lift up to 90 kilos, perform intricate tasks (such as shoelace tying, holding spherical objects, using a keyboard), and provide a level of digital functionality previously impossible.

Full story on The Telegraph website

Boyfriend falls 11 stories and dies after trying to scale girlfriend's building

– NY Daily News (USA), 09-Jul-2010

A man who tried to scale down the side of a Harlem building with [with] shoelaces and a belt plunged 11 floors to his death Thursday morning.
...

Wright tied the laces and the belt to a pipe and tried to inch his way to her top-floor window, then plummeted onto a second-floor patio roof.

Full story on NY Daily News website

Later story plus photo on The New York Times website

Slide tackle gets laces stuck to studs

– Yahoo! Sports (USA), 19-May-2010

After a horrible first touch early on in Cruzeiro's match against Avai on Sunday, defender Leonardo Silva went in for a challenge on a charging Davi that resulted in getting Davi's laces stuck to the studs on Silva's boot.

Full story (including video) on Yahoo! Sports website

Ian's Comment: See also similar incidents in 2019, 2017, 2016 and 2013.

Man crawls out of ravine after crash

– Cowichan Valley Citizen (Canada), 05-May-2010

When he was going to downtown Duncan his shoelace got caught under the accelerator of the vehicle and he sped out of control and off the road, ...

It came to rest approximately 200 feet down the bank.

Full story on Cowichan Valley Citizen website

Dog mauls boy, 11, in Tieri street

– Central Queensland News (Australia), 26-Mar-2010

A Tieri schoolboy's face was slashed and bitten in an unprovoked weekend dog attack.

The 11-year-old was walking alone down Pisces Street on Sunday afternoon when he bent over to tie a loose shoelace and was savaged by the medium-sized black and white dog.

Full story on Central Queensland News website

Figure skater Nobunari Oda dragged down by his bootlaces

– Reuters, 19-Feb-2010

Following a crash landing on the triple loop, memories of Tonya Harding's skating debacle at the 1994 Olympics came flooding back when Japan's Oda had to stop mid routine to sort out one of his bootlaces.

With the long laces trailing his boots on the ice, Oda skated up to the judges seeking permission to retie the offending piece of cord.

Full story on Reuters website

Ian's Comment: See also the 1994 story about Tonya Harding.

Mandela's Shoelaces

– The New Yorker (USA), 11-Feb-2010

Mandela asked for a meeting with P. W. Botha, the head of the apartheid state, which Coetsee and Barnard finally arranged in 1989.
...

So anxious was Barnard, the intelligence chief, about the meeting that seconds before the two men were to shake hands, he knelt down to fix Mandela's clumsily tied shoes. (Prisoners were forbidden shoelaces, and Mandela was long out of the habit of tying them.)

Full story on The New Yorker website

1995 “Time” article, containing Richard Stengel's account

Hunter Rescued After Hanging From Tree

– Jacksonville News (USA), 06-Jan-2010

Epperson said the hunter's portable tree stand malfunctioned. The hunter fell backward and was saved from falling to the ground by his shoe laces, which hugged the tree's trunk.

Full story on Jacksonville News website

Prisoner used shoe lace to escape from Swansea court

– BBC News (UK), 04-Jan-2010

A prisoner has admitted escaping from the crown court in Swansea after using a shoe lace to tamper with a lock.
...

The court heard Stevenson had used a shoe lace to tamper with a latch on his cell door during the escape.

Full story on BBC News website

Ian's Comment: This same person escaped again using the same shoelace technique in Jul-2013 (see more recent story). When will the authorities improve the locks on their prison cells?

Ayrshire dog rescued after falling from icy cliff ledge

– Ayrshire Post (UK), 01-Jan-2010

Bruno somehow finished up on a precarious ledge in the Galloway Hills, beyond Loch Doon.
...

Brian now had to think about getting them both off the ledge.

He used boot spare boot laces to make a lead, tying one end to Bruno's collar and the other round his wrist.

“I had to virtually throw Bruno on to the ledge above,” said the fit gardener/handyman.

Full story on Ayrshire Post website