The technology gods owe Robert McKevitt - all of us, actually - an explanation as to why in the year 2014 vending machines are still capable of driving normal human beings to abnormal acts of frustration.

In other words, who among us hasn't wanted to take a forklift to a balky vending machine?

McDevitt, of Spirit Lake, Iowa, unfortunately succumbed to that temptation last fall after depositing 90 cents into a machine that not only reneged on its promise to provide a Twix candy bar but taunted its victim with that all-too-familiar tactic of dangling the confection half-delivered.

Here's what happened next, according to the Des Moines Register:

At first, McKevitt's frustration took the customary route: He banged the side of the machine. He tried rocking it back and forth. But when that didn't work, McKevitt walked away and commandeered an 8,000-pound forklift, according to state unemployment compensation records. He reportedly drove up to the vending machine, lifted it 2 feet off the concrete warehouse floor - then let it drop. He allegedly repeated the maneuver at least six times, by which time three candy bars had fallen into the chute for his retrieval.

Five days later he was fired. Last month his appeal for unemployment benefits was denied. And today we all feel his pain.

Speaking of pain, forklifts are more than capable of inflicting it, which is why I'm going to share the next two videos: The first is a collection of 10 forklift accidents, only the last of which leaves me wondering if it caused a fatality; the second shows a data center-specific replacement for the forklift.

The mayhem:

And here my Network World colleague Keith Shaw interviews a spokesman for ServerLIFT, who demonstrates that company's alternative to the forklift that is designed for the data center.

I assume that a ServerLIFT could move a vending machine, but it's probably not a recommended use.