Girl who got her head stuck in truck tailpipe takes down trolls, proudly brands herself the 'tailpipe girl'
When most people go to a music festival, they expect to have an amazing time listening to some great music and spending time with friends and family. For one 19-year-old, however, her experience at Minnesota's Winstock festival, which is a two-day country music festival, was unique and somewhat funny.
Kaitlyn Strom and her friends were at the festival sitting next to a highly modified truck which had a giant tailpipe. Now, most people would look at this and think that the truck looks crazy and admire it. Unfortunately for Strom, and thankfully for everyone else on the internet, the young woman had other ideas. In an interview with the Hutchinson Leader, Strom said: "We were just all having fun and I saw this big exhaust pipe and I was like, ‘Hey, my head could probably fit in that'. So I tried it.'"
The teen was right at the end of the day. Her head fit inside the tailpipe perfectly but she did not account for one thing, how to get her head back out. She even told the Leader: "It didn’t want to come back out." In a series of hilariously stupid events, her head was stuck in the tailpipe for a whole 45 minutes before she was rescued.
Firefighters had to be called to the venue and cut the tailpipe off to be able to free Strom's head. Most people would have been extremely embarrased at this point but, then again, Strom isn't like most people. A bystander caught the entire thing on camera and the video has more than 1.4 million views on Facebook at this moment.
Instead of sitting in her room feeling ashamed of her toomfoolery, however, Strom has proudly said that she is indeed the girl in the video. She has even put up a post on her Facebook page where she calls herself the "tailpipe girl".
Aside from being the center of attention for sometime at a music fesival that attracts a large number of people, Strom is also a rare case of someone who is willing to give interviews about her experience at the festival.
She gave the Hutchinson Leader a detailed account of what she went through while her head was wedged inside the tail pipe. The incident should not have occured in the first place, but the young woman owned up to her stupidity and took it in good spirits.
She said: "[I was] kind of confused because I didn’t know what was going on, because I couldn’t see around me. But I trusted everyone who was around that I knew to get me out safely."
Strom told the publication that she had seen many nasty comments on the picture that she posted, and the video that a user called Truck Rice posted, of the incident. Some of the comments were actually quite mean with users saying things like the driver of the car should have floored it or that the firefighters who came to the 19-year-old's aid should have cut the pipe "a little farther down". Fortunately, she told the publication that she is "just brushing it off".
She said: "I would just say thank you to everyone who has supported me and been there throughout this. Even [the people] with the mean comments for teaching me who I don’t want to be like, and how to be strong and not care and be bothered by what people say."
In what is actually a case of karma working in favour of the person for a change, Strom got lucky and did not have to pay for the massive tailpipe that had to be sawed off the truck. She said that the man who owned the vehicle was "absolutely wonderful" and fixed his truck without asking Strom for any reimbursement.
The teen did, however, get a ticket from the authorities at the festival for underage drinking because something like this could not have happened when a person was sober.
Actually, it could if the person was crazy enough, but, in Strom's case, it was the alcohol that did the talking. She was able to handle the whole incident with maturity that defies her actual age. She was also the lucky recepient of the official title the "tailpipe girl". If you think the pipe itself has been left out of all the accolades you're wrong. It has received the title of "the most famous tailpipe in Minnesota".
Shortly after the video went viral, a local watering hole called the Darwin Tavern acquired the now-famous tailpipe and it is proudly displayed in their bar.
A picture was put up with the caption: "Ladies and gentlemen! Step right up and see the most famous tailpipe in Minnesota, quite possibly the world! We here at the Darwin Tavern have acquired the Winstock Music Festival tailpipe that the girl got her head stuck in that has gone viral! The owner of the tailpipe, Mr. Tom Wold, has graciously lent the tailpipe to us for all to see. #winstock18 #tailpipegirl Stop on down for a cold beverage, great food and the Winstock tailpipe! See you down here folks!"