This won't be a Christmas that Robert Shoff, age 77, will soon forget. Trying to unclog a septic line a this home, Shoff, somehow managed to slip into the septic tank and get stuck upside down! Shoff struggled to free himself for about an hour before his wife noticed his legs shaking in the air from a window inside their home. She immediately called the police and they promptly removed him from his smelly perch. Robert Shoff only suffered minor bruising and a damaged eardrum, apparently from screaming for help. I can't think of a worse Christmas, can you?

Now the Spills of the Week:

Poo All Through the House!: the tenants were stirring in one Cobb County apartment complex while a sewage leak ruined there Christmas. The residents and numerous guests in town for the holidays at the Highland Court Apartments in Marietta, GA put a major strain on the building s wastewater infrastructure which led to sewage backups throughout the building. Work crews have since fixed the problem.
- December 24, 2007: WGCL TV - Atlanta, GA

Poop, uh...Port Side: Alaska transportation officials are investigating a sewage discharge aboard a state ferry while it was docked in Ketchikan, AK. The ship's captain reported an undetermined amount of sewage back flowed into crew staterooms aboard the 352-food Taku early Monday. No passengers or crew were injured, although there were some crewmembers in their rooms when the sewage discharge occurred.
- December 24, 2007: KTVF TV - Fairbanks, AK

Mucky Christmas!: A Florida family's Christmas turned into a nightmare when they discovered sewage flowing out of their toilet and sink. Carmen Sotomayor and Ronald Stacy of Dania Beach returned to their apartment early Christmas morning only to find sewage spewing out of the plumbing and across the floor of their three-bedroom apartment.
- December 26, 2007: United Press International - Dania Beach, FL

Icky Icy Upset: An overturned sewage truck spilled 6,000 gallons of waste on Ohio Gulch Road, north of Hailey, ID. Ketchum Plant officials said the truck's load weighed 51,000 pounds. The truck slipped 50 to 75 yards, then dropped over a 40-foot embankment and flipped, coming to rest on its top. The driver leapt from the truck before it slipped over the embankment and flipped (HOY COW!).
- December 26, 2007: Idaho Mountain Express - Ketchum, ID

Sweeping Sewage: A malfunction at one of the city's lift stations caused raw sewage to backup in several homes off North Green River Road. Denise Craig's Christmas shopping was cut short Sunday afternoon when her husband called saying sewer water was spewing out of the toilet. "For three and a half hours it just kept coming and coming and coming. He had the broom and was just sweeping it out the back to the drain, and I was on my hands and knees with a bucket and a cup." Craig says, "It was not just brown, I mean it had chunks and flakes and everything in it. ...I don't want my family wading through everyone else's sewer water." Craig, a nurse, is concerned about the health effects of coming into contact with the sewage in her home. "We're already starting with the itchy eyes and scratchy throat and the cough."
- December 28, 2007: 14 WFIE - Evansville, IN