In July 1950, a circus director in Wuppertal had an idea for a clever advertisement that had unexpected consequences. The theater manager often went around the city with Tuffy the elephant to advertise his circus.
This round trip took time, so the circus manager decided to take Wuppertal’s monocoque.
The first trip went well. Tuffy ate a bouquet of flowers from one of the passengers and peed on the floor carpet of the carriage, but otherwise had little to do with the situation.
But when the trip was repeated soon after, Tuffy seems to have had enough of the crowd, because she roared off and smashed her way through the wall of the carriage.
The passengers watched the elephant fall 10 meters into the Wupper river.
Tuffy survived the fall and then died in 1989.
She was never forced to travel by public transport again.
