In this photo provided by the Kenosha Police Department, co-workers, police and firefighters try to help Darmin Garcia, an employee of a Kenosha company that supplies chocolate ingredients, out of a 110 degree vat of dark chocolate at Debelis Corp. in Kenosha, Wis., Friday, Aug. 18, 2006. Darmin Garcia, 21, slipped into the bubbling hot chocolate and was stuck for two hours early Friday morning. (AP Photo/Kenosha Police Department via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Man Trapped Waist-Deep in Chocolate
Saturday, August 19, 2006 3:44 PM EDT
The Associated Press
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — It might sound like a chocoholic's dream, but stepping into a vat of viscous chocolate became a two-hour nightmare for a 21-year-old man Friday morning. Darmin Garcia, an employee of a company that supplies chocolate ingredients, said he was pushing the chocolate down into the vat at Debelis Corp. because it was stuck. But it became loose and he slid into the hopper.
"It was in my hair, in my ears, my mouth, everywhere," said Garcia, who has worked at the company for two years. "I felt like I weighed 900 pounds. I couldn't move."
The chocolate was 110 degrees, hotter than a hot tub, said Capt. Greg Sinnen of the Kenosha Fire Department.
Co-workers, police and firefighters tried to free the man but couldn't get him loose until the chocolate was thinned out with cocoa butter.
"It was pretty thick. It was virtually like quicksand," said police Capt. Randy Berner.
Garcia was treated for minor injuries and released.
After more than two hours in the chocolate, does he still have a taste for it?
"Not so much anymore," Garcia said.