--- title: Dutchman Smashes House With Crane in Marriage Proposal Gone Wrong description: And somehow she still said yes canonical: https://time.com/3632711/dutch-marriage-proposal-crane/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-13T17:27:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:15:18.430Z og:title: Dutchman Smashes House With Crane in Marriage Proposal Gone Wrong og:description: And somehow she still said yes og:url: https://time.com/3632711/dutch-marriage-proposal-crane/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a21d1ec9ab0ac05/69876e8af887dcdcabe88ff3/crane-proposal-accident.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4096 og:image:height: 2304 og:image:alt: Crane topples on to house during dramatic proposal og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dutchman Smashes House With Crane in Marriage Proposal Gone Wrong twitter:description: And somehow she still said yes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a21d1ec9ab0ac05/69876e8af887dcdcabe88ff3/crane-proposal-accident.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dutchman's Romantic Proposal Almost Destroys Nearby Building > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=3343b729-17d4-4d9c-9f5e-8d3ec7c33c6a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 13, 2014 5:27 PM UTC  A crane fell on to the roof of a house in IJsselstein, Netherlands, on Dec. 13, 2014\. The incident ocurred when a man tried to surprise his girlfriend by proposing from the top of the crane, which then toppled on to the house, though no injuries were reported. A crane fell on to the roof of a house in IJsselstein, Netherlands, on Dec. 13, 2014\. The incident ocurred when a man tried to surprise his girlfriend by proposing from the top of the crane, which then toppled on to the house, though no injuries were reported. Michiel Van Beers—EPA  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 13, 2014 5:27 PM UTC Let [this](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30462825) be a cautionary tale to all you lovers with Hollywood-fueled ideas about marriage proposals. A little glitz is fine but don’t go too big—or too heavy, as the case may be. A man in the Dutch town of IJsselstein was hoping to surprise his girlfriend with an elaborate marriage proposal Saturday morning, the BBC reports, when surprise her he did—by smashing the roof of a neighbor’s house with the unanchored crane he had secured for the occasion. The man, whose name has not been released, intended to descend in front of her bedroom window and sing her a song before proposing. Instead the crane crashed through a nearby ceiling and caused the evacuation of other nearby homes. No one was hurt in the incident, not even the budding couple—Dutch media reports the woman said yes to the proposal, and the lovers are now vacationing in Paris. \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30462825)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3632711/dutch-marriage-proposal-crane/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3632711/dutch-marriage-proposal-crane/"},"headline":"Dutchman's Romantic Proposal Almost Destroys Nearby Building","datePublished":"2014-12-13T17:27:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:15:18.430Z","description":"Talk about a hopeless romantic","url":"https://time.com/3632711/dutch-marriage-proposal-crane/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Marriage","Accident","Proposal","Funny","dutch"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a21d1ec9ab0ac05/69876e8af887dcdcabe88ff3/crane-proposal-accident.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a21d1ec9ab0ac05/69876e8af887dcdcabe88ff3/crane-proposal-accident.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Crane topples on to house during dramatic proposal","caption":"Crane topples on to house during dramatic proposal","creditText":"Michiel Van Beers—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3632711/dutch-marriage-proposal-crane/","name":"Dutchman's Romantic Proposal Almost Destroys Nearby Building"}}]}] ```