Man Falls to Death into Vat of Chocolate

29-year-old Hit by Mixing Blade Falls into 8-Foot Vat of Boiling Chocolate

(CBS/AP)  Authorities say a man has died after falling into a vat of melted chocolate in a New Jersey processing plant.

A spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office says the 29-year-old temporary worker at Cocoa Services Inc. plant fell after a blade used to mix raw chocolate hit him. The man's name has not been released.

The accident happened around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday as the worker was loading raw chocolate into the vat where it's melted and mixed before being shipped elsewhere to be made into candy products.

The victim was said to have been trapped in the vat for nearly 10 minutes before being freed, reports CBS station KYW. Officials said a preliminary investigation has revealed that the worker may have suffered a head injury while inside the vat.

Prosecutor's spokesman Jason Laughlin says a co-worker tried to shut off the machine and two others tried to pull the man out of the 8-foot deep vat.

Cocoa Services hires a second company - Lyons and Sons - to do the mixing.

[Laubri651]

Hello everyone...i justed wanted to thank the nice people who had something nice to say about my cousin my family is greatful...and for those who are rude i hope u go right to hell Toldyous029 Mooksie1, Sheba082 and nopucker guess wat ur the nut. my cousin vince was a nice, caring, and educated person. he was the best cousin, son, and newphew that ever was on this earth. Try reading the papers sometimes to find out what happen and how did he fall in the vat. because if it was you people would be talking bad about you just like u are doing ,my cousin.

[lparsley64]

I cannot believe that anyone makes fun of another human being who dies, especially so painfully and tragically. How sick. How just plain mean.

[freedemm]

If you find a button in your Choclate bar please return it to the family of the deceased

[Laubri651]

and i hope u go right to hell

[sheba082]

I am sorry it was man who fell in. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.

[mooksie1]

I guess many would like to pass on in a vat of chocolate.

[wooot1]

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[toldyouso29]

--how does a blade hit a person who is pouring chocolate in? Aren't the blades in the vat? How could the blade have reached the man on a walkway and batted him in? Is everyone sure he was not pushed? OSHA--check this out.

And also...please account for all ingredients used to compound that particular batch of chocolate--we want to make sure it got destroyed or removed for investigation and to be destroyed later--we don't need shades of Willy Wonka Augustus Gloop in our chocolate.

[nopucker]

I wonder if he crapped his pants? No one would ever know...

[toldyouso29]

They'd know. Crap may be brown like chocolate--but it certainly would not smell like chocolate.

[Laubri651]

if he did i want to throw it on u..nasty hope my cousin hunts ur dumb behind u a hole

[Morton_U_Kanandel]

While this is obviously a tragedy and I don't mean to demean it, it also was the premise of a comedy sketch at The Second City in Chicago over 40 years ago. Mourners at a funeral tried to keep a straight face while hearing the details of the death of a man who fell into a vat of chocolate. The idea was later recycled on the Mary Tyler Moore show in an episode about Chuckles the Clown. "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants." Truth stranger than fiction?

[lovethenews]

You people are stupid. This man was somebody's son, father, brother or husband. Have a little respect. My sympathies go out to the family and friends, I am sorry for your loss.

[darthcheney345]

My sympathies go out to the family and friends
------------
Really? Then make sure you put on enough postage to mail your sympathies to Mexico, Guatemala, Taiwan, or Vietnam.

Because probably that's where he got into the shipping container he was smuggled into the country in.