Dateline: EnglandAn upset consumer is getting revenge on an online scammer by texting him the complete works of Shakespeare. Edd Joseph, 24, told the Bristol Post he paid $133 for a PlayStation 3 game console, but the seller never delivered the item. “I was really annoyed, and I was trying to think of ways of being more in the position of power because I felt so helpless about it,” Joseph said. After contemplating several tried-and-true methods of revenge, he realized he could copy and paste things from the Internet into a text message. “It got me thinking, ‘What can I send to him?’ which turned to ‘What is a really long book?’ which ended with me sending him Macbeth.” According to Joseph he has sent 22 of Shakespeare’s plays to the scammer, which were broken into a total of 17,424 text messages. Joseph says he has an unlimited text and data plan, so the prank isn’t costing him anything. “I got the first reply after an hour, and then a few more abusive messages after that. His phone must have been going off pretty constantly for hours,” Joseph said. “If nothing else I’m sharing a little bit of culture with someone who probably doesn’t have much experience of it.”Dateline: VirginiaPolice in the Washington, DC suburb of Reston are fine with jail visits, but they draw the line at naked drop-ins. According to ARLnow.com, 26-year-old Maura Fussell arrived at the magistrate’s office around 11pm on Saturday, March 15, looking to visit her husband, who had been arrested in the Clarendon neighborhood earlier that evening. Police say she was both drunk and completely naked. An Arlington County Police spokesperson said Fussell refused to put her clothes on. It was unclear if she showed up naked or merely removed her clothing at the office. Police gave the woman the option of taking a cab home or spending the night in jail. She opted for the latter. “Our officers frequently give these people an opportunity to take a cab. They frequently don’t want to do that,” said the police spokesperson. Fussell and her husband were both released the next day. A St. Patrick’s Day pub crawl was held in Clarendon that afternoon, and many in the area believe the incidents were linked.Dateline: MainePolice with assault rifles descended on a home in Norridgewock looking for a heavily armed suspect but only found a heavily tattooed one. Michael Smith, who works nights, was allegedly asleep in his home when a tree trimming crew contracted by a local utility started work around 10am on the morning of Tuesday, March 18. Smith went outside shirtless and yelled at the workers to leave. Thinking the life-sized tattoo of a gun on Smith’s stomach was the real thing, the worried workers called police. State troopers armed with machine guns surrounded Smith’s home and ordered him, via megaphone, to come out. It was eventually determined that Smith’s weapon was just a tattoo. The realistic-looking handgun is tattooed in such a way that it looks like the barrel is tucked into his waistband at all times. Smith says he doesn’t regret getting the body art, even though this isn’t the first the tattoo has been the focus of police scrutiny. Maine State Police officers said Smith was cooperative, and they did not believe he had exposed his torso in an effort to intimidate the workers. He was released without charge. “I got plans today. I didn’t want to get shot,” Smith told the Morning Sentinel.Dateline: WashingtonMaintenance workers in Seattle attempting to fix a ferry ending up doing the exact opposite when they drilled a hole in the ship’s hull. The Washington State ferry system says the error happened earlier this month at the Eagle Harbor maintenance facility where the 440-foot Walla Walla ferry was undergoing routine annual maintenance. Crews had apparently drilled a hole in the bilge deck to drain dirty water and paint chips from the boat’s interior. Perhaps forgetting how a boat works, maintenance workers punched a second hole nearly 2 inches wide, breaching the hull. A temporary repair was made using a clamp on the inside and a pressure patch on the outside. A permanent repair was planned for late last week, which will delay the ferry’s return to service..
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. Email your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
