But the guy did it himself. Must have gone insane.

Ignoring the entirety of the rest of this story, I desperately want to know why: "Fortunately it landed in the garden on the other side." was so notable.

Because it didn't land on someone's head?

Yeah, I read this as "fortunately it didn't land on anyone and didn't damage any valuable property." (Value judgements about gardens aside...)

"The victim did it to themselves" is a famously bulletproof defense. I don't know why people don't try it more often.

This is the typical tall tale that used to travel in every neighborhood as a warning, especially to scare kids from doing some things. Kids eat up these stories. Probably doesn't work that much in the age of phones and "pics (shorts?) or it never happened".

Unfortunately, we’ve reached the era where pics and shorts are very much no longer proof. In a few minutes you could generate video of that exact scenario.