We all want that sweet camera moment when we all say cheese and smile our way to the best photo memory of our times. But sometimes great photo moments turn horribly wrong and culminate to something totally disastrous. That was the case of a few unlucky chaps who wanted to take a selfie but ended up either embarrassing themselves or landing themselves into serious trouble.

Most of the time, we are told that a picture is worth a thousand words. Yes, it is. This therefore means that we have to be very careful of the pictures we take, even if we only had the most innocent of intentions. The problem is, whenever we are in a photo frenzy, none of these “wise words” ever cross our minds. Therefore, we usually end up doing the unthinkable, all for the love of the clicks and the flashes.

But the human mind can be very ignorant at times – so ignorant in fact, that sometimes common sense is surpassed by the urge for current pleasures. Because of that, we have 15 people in this list whose selfies never went exactly as planned. Some of them ended up with a few physical and emotional bruises but for the unlucky ones, they were left for dead immediately after their phone cameras clicked.

15. This camel did not want to take part in the selfie

This woman probably went out to have the best adventure of her life but instead, she came back home with the biggest bite mark you can ever get on your face. This was after she was smitten by a camel and decided to capture those moments with the tall animal on camera.

The camel however, turned out to be photophobic and instead of showing off its teeth for a smile for the camera, he instead let them out for the biggest photo-session bite mark in history. The poor woman surely learnt to keep her distance after that rather embarrassing incident.

14. A selfie with the most priceless statue ends up being very expensive

Two tourists in Cremona Italy nearly had their bank accounts emptied after an attempt to capture a great selfie with the famous Statue of the two Hercules turned disastrous. This was after the two tourists tried to climb the old statue for the selfie, breaking its priceless crown in the process.

The statue, which has been standing since the 1700s, has been a monumental feature in the small city of Cremona. The two tourists, in their attempt to take a selfie with the statue, knocked off its marble crown which fell onto the ground and shattered into pieces immediately. The two culprits were immediately apprehended and authorities promptly started assessing the damage. No one knows how much they were charged, but they probably had empty bank accounts after the ordeal.

13. He didn’t like how he looked on the arrest warrant so he sent a selfie

People who love selfies are certified photogenic people. This therefore means that they pay much attention on how they look through the lens. This is what led Donald Pugh to send the Ohio police a selfie of himself in 2015, after he felt offended that they had used a bad photo on his arrest warrant.

Donald had been arrested a few days before on DUI charges and was set to appear in court, something that he did not do. The Ohio police were left with no alternative other than issue an arrest warrant for the middle aged man, who instead of crossing over to Mexico, went to Facebook and shared a photo he believed would fit the arrest warrant better. The photo quickly went viral, and the guy never made it to Mexico because he quickly got tracked and cuffed again.

12. He desperately wanted a photo with a train passing by

Canadian Jared Frank was so desperate for a selfie that he ended up with a bruise on the face just for a selfie with a train passing by. Back in 2014, Jared was in Peru when he saw a train track with a train closing in from far. Seeing that as an opportunity for an awesome selfie, Jared stood close to the track waiting for the small train to approach then took a selfie immediately it was passing him.

However, the chap was so dangerously close to the train track that as the small train passed by, the conductor’s foot hit him smack on the face. The best part is he caught it all on camera – but probably never showed it to his buddies for fear of embarrassment (although now it’s on the Internet for everyone to see).

11. The squirrel thought it looked bad in the selfie, so it got mad

17-year-old Brian Genest was walking through John Chestnut Park in Florida when he saw a squirrel and opted for a selfie with the cute animal. The squirrel was not offended at first, and it did actually pose for a photo moment. However, immediately after the poor animal saw the flash and heard the shutter click, it went nuts.

The squirrel immediately jumped on Brian’s back in what seemed like an attack. Cameras were also able to capture this moment, but the squirrel was too enraged to focus on a smile. Brian was eventually saved from the nuts squirrel, but he probably learned not to press the camera button too quickly next time.

10. The way she is eating the banana is not photo-friendly

This woman was probably having too good a lunch to not take a selfie while she was at it. Well, that is the theory, but we can unanimously agree that bananas are rather controversial fruits – it’s the more reason why the whole selfie is controversial.

Assuming this was an innocent selfie, this woman was simply trying to get a head-start to some sweet lunch eating (no pun intended). However, on the other side, this selfie turned embarrassing quite quickly since no one would love to pose like that in the middle of a hectic workday, with your boss probably lurking around.

9. He wanted a selfie that would blow up the internet, but not his head

Two lovers in Washington state in 2016 were on a selfie craze. A 43-year-old man and his girlfriend were out in the wild taking photos with a gun in what was apparently a hot and dangerous adventure. Trouble started when the man took the phone from his girlfriend so as to take a selfie with the gun pointed right to his face.

Seemingly, the poor guy had forgotten that his gun was live and loaded. When he was just about to take the selfie, he accidentally pulled the trigger and blew up his head, right in front of his girlfriend.

8. Some guy driving by just had to destroy the selfie

This lady was probably having a good time riding shotgun and when she finally got the chance, she couldn’t avoid engaging in a selfie moment. However, it seems like the car she was in had enraged some other driver who found it appropriate to express his road rage in the lady’s selfie.

The lady’s confidence was torn down by the middle-finger show from the driver of the next car. She probably never saw that gesture until her friends got hold of the selfie and it went viral. However, this serves as a good lesson. Next time you want a selfie, make sure the background is clear.

7. This monkey loves oranges more than selfies

Whenever you see baby animals, there is this parenting instinct in you that kicks in. You immediately want to hold the baby animals in your hands as if they are your own and if possible, take memorable photos with them. When Katy Perry saw this baby monkey, she fell in love with it and decided to capture their moments together in a selfie. However, the monkey never smiled at the cameras. It was busy looking somewhere else.

Katy’s wardrobe was spectacular, but what it left in its glamour is what amused the monkey more. The photo was destined to be cute, but that monkey’s pose quickly made things weird.

6. A selfie almost cost him a fortune

A foreign student had to flee after he accidentally broke the leg of the famous “Drunken Satyr” marble sculpture. Apparently, the student, who was on tour, was smitten by the statue which had been recovered from Italy in 1624 and was desperate to take a selfie with it. As he was climbing it, he snapped its leg.

Scared to death, and well aware that authorities were searching for him, the student fled. However, the authorities clarified that the severed statue was not the original one, but rather a plastic mock created in the 1800s. This news however never comforted the student who up to date has never been found.

5. He wanted to fake a fall in a selfie but ended up falling for real

A 17-year-old Russian man fell 9 stories off a building after a daredevil stunt went quickly south during preparations. The young man was preparing to take a selfie, faking that he was falling off a building but in the process, he plummeted to the ground from 9 stories high.

This was not the first time he was doing such a stunt. Apparently, the guy was already becoming an Instagram sensation. However, luck didn’t knock on his door this time round and he ended up lifeless two hours later in hospital. His last photo on Instagram was of the rope he would use to perform his stunt.

4. This crocodile was less interested in the selfie

On January 2017, a French tourist named Benetulier Lesuffleur almost lost her life after a selfie with a crocodile almost turned her into the reptile’s lunch. According to witnesses, the lady who was in the company of her husband was amused by the reptile and insisted that she wanted to take a selfie with it. Fueled on by the idea of the beautiful selfie moment, she blatantly ignored warning signs telling her not to leave the trails of the park and wandered into the pond where the reptile was resting.

Sadly, the poor lady tripped and fell into the pond. What followed was a large bite on her leg, inflicted by the crocodile. Were it not for rescuers who responded immediately, Benetulier was about to suffer a second attack from the enraged crocodile. She was lucky to have survived the ordeal, and definitely wise enough now to know that crocodiles don’t recognize selfies but rather meat.

3. These bombers simply couldn’t resist a selfie

Some chaps in Russia were suspected of a bombing after authorities discovered rather bizarre evidence in their phones. Back in 2015, an apartment block in Russia was reduced to rubbles after a bomb supposedly exploded in the building. As investigators were searching through the rubbles, they discovered a phone with a selfie in it of two men holding a hand grenade with its pin pulled out.

According to investigators, the two men, aged 17 and 24, had been drinking vodka all night. After leaving their friend’s place, they went to the apartment where they pulled the pin of the grenade and took a selfie with it – and boy was it explosive.

2. Dangerous selfie from a bridge leads to a deadly fall

The Foresthill Bridge in North Auburn California almost claimed the life of a Sacramento, California woman on the 4^th of April 2017. This was after she lost her balance as she was trying to take a selfie from the catwalk of the bridge, thus plummeting 18 meters to the ground.

According to the police who responded to the scene, the woman was in the company of friends when they trespassed to the bridge’s walkway and the woman tried to take a selfie. Lucky for her, she did not die by the time she was being airlifted to hospital. The sheriff did not charge her with trespassing, but a post written in the sheriff’s Facebook page stated that the incident should serve as a lesson to other people risking their lives just for a selfie.

1. A selfie triggered domino effect

Some unlucky woman was the cause of serious damage amounting to $200,000 in sculptures on display, after her attempt to take a selfie in the 14^th Factory show in Los Angeles ended up disastrous. According to the witnesses, the woman leaned on one of the pedestals, which was standing next to a row of rectangular plinths each having a sculpture put on display above it.

The first pedestal to fall generated the domino effect that saw a whole row of sculptures fall to the ground. Some of the artists affected in the tragic incident, which occurred on July 2017, were Simon Birch and his collaborators.