For whatever reason, autoerotic asphyxiation has been in the news a hell of a lot lately. Forget the rumors about David Carradine. Forget the Robin Williams movie, World’s Greatest Dad. (No, really. Forget it. It was Robin Williams worst movie since Mrs. Doubtfire. What is it with him, anyways? I’m sorry, but Being Human is in no WAY going to ever match the magic that was The World According to Garp. Just sayin’.)

Anyways, forget those. The latest incident involves a man in Germany. Heinz W. (not his real name) was 55 years old when he died. The father of two strangled himself to death by way of autoerotic asphyxiation. And his life insurance company doesn’t want to pay for it.

And really, why should they? After all, the insurance company probably looked at specific risk factors. They probably considered whether Hanz was a smoker, and whether he had any preexisting health conditions.

They really didn’t know that Heinz’s wife would find him in their bed one day, wearing a leather suit and having strangled himself with a chain.

Of course, at first, the wife didn’t think that’s what had happened. She figured he’d been murdered, in spite of the obvious evidence to the contrary. She called the police and everything. A court eventually declared that the death was caused by “an erotic accident,” and therefore Hanz had accidentally killed himself.

The incident happened one day when Heinz sat in wait, waiting for his wife to go to work and his kids to go to school. His strange game of self-stimulation began with donning the leather suit and chaining himself to the bed.

Now, here’s where it gets bizarre. You see, Hanz and his wife owned a bed that had an adjustable head. He used the control for the bed to cut off his air supply.

At some point during the process, it’s likely that Hanz lost control and dropped the remote. When that happened, the head of the bed kept moving and our boy Hanz couldn’t get any air. He then suffocated.

Because Hanz killed himself, albeit inadvertently, the insurance company is not required to pay the life insurance claim. The claim was valued at more than $300,000.

Photo via marysuephotoeth