Dude, You're Under Arrest

February 10, 2003 9:40 AM

Dude, You're Under ArrestBen "Dell Dude" Curtis, was arrested in New York last night on charges of criminal possession of marijuana. Thanks to The Smoking Gun we now have something to make us laugh on a Monday.
posted by mkelley (34 comments total)

I'm from the same home town as Ben and he seems like a nice enough guy, but I just hated those commercials. Sorry, please indulge my schadenfreude.

I'm working on a project that was going to be presented to Ben in hopes of getting a little soundbyte. Non-profit type stuff, unfortunately that has gone up in smoke (pun wasn't intended).
posted by mkelley at 9:46 AM on February 10, 2003

Dude was arrested over some dried flowers? Sorry, not funny.
posted by sudama at 9:56 AM on February 10, 2003

I've got a carton I can trade for him...
posted by WolfDaddy at 9:59 AM on February 10, 2003

Dude! You're getting a cell!

would have been better.
posted by grum@work at 10:12 AM on February 10, 2003

On reading the actual article that is being linked, I see that they used that joke on THEIR headline. My apologies.
posted by grum@work at 10:13 AM on February 10, 2003

Curtis was holding a "small bag of marijuana"

Glad to see the war on drugs is going so well. I feel better now that the small bag of pot he had is off the streets.

No doubt the added paranoia of orange alert is what did him in.

Maybe during interrogation they will get him to roll on Saddam.
posted by a3matrix at 10:16 AM on February 10, 2003

dude, i know his mom. seriously, his mom was a french professor at chattanooga state during my stint in the early 90s. and sure, the commercials were abyssmal....

but they worked.
posted by grabbingsand at 10:19 AM on February 10, 2003

like no one thought this guy was a stoner. it's not acting when you play yourself.

still funny, tho.

i wonder if dell cans him for getting busted?
posted by hawkman at 10:34 AM on February 10, 2003

Buy a Dell -- support terrorism!

err... something like that.
posted by moses at 10:35 AM on February 10, 2003

Isn't pot a Gateway drug?
posted by mkelley at 10:53 AM on February 10, 2003 [1 favorite has favorites]

Hell...next thing we are going to hear about is Ellen Feiss getting busted or something. What is this world coming to? I thought they were all just acting.
posted by Odi et Amo at 10:55 AM on February 10, 2003

yeah, i hated the dell commercials too. how in hell did dell market to corporate clients with stoner ben as their spokesman? now they've moved past him to a whole crew of fresh-faced, wide-eyed interns making silly comments at dell's assembly plants. that'll bring 'em in, all right.

i live in austin, in the relatively urbane arboretum area, and i've never had so many pot-smoking neighbors in my life as i have now. i've literally had to alter my tolerance of pot smoking in order to not isolate myself from my community. so to me it seems perfectly fitting that ben gets nabbed with a bag o' hash. the boy's just representing, dudes.
posted by Jonasio at 11:02 AM on February 10, 2003

jonasio, they were marketing toward college kids who could sucker their computer-illiterate parents into getting them a dell.

Ben goes to nyu (or did, as of last year), of course he smokes. He must have been buying some on the street; I don't see any other way he could have been arrested for carrying a bag. He should know better. You live in New York, use a delivery service.
posted by pinto at 11:12 AM on February 10, 2003

Maxim: If you skinned him, he'd still make an annoying rug.

Apparently a rather hungry annoying rug too.

"And we were so close to winning the war on drugs!
posted by lazaruslong at 11:15 AM on February 10, 2003

Hey, that neighborhood was unlivable until NYPD cleaned it up, which they did by locking up dealers and putting buyers through the system. The rich kid buying pot isn't hurting anybody, but the thug selling it to him and his runners and lookouts and bodyguards will eventually go elsewhere if their customers stay away knowing they're likely to get busted.

I live on Washington Square, and I'm damned glad to see renewed enforcement v. street dealing — now my girlfriend can cross the square without being accosted.
posted by nicwolff at 11:17 AM on February 10, 2003

Mkelly-
That comment made my entire day.

awesome
posted by das_2099 at 11:33 AM on February 10, 2003

jonasio: i used to live in north and central austin, and, since moving to south austin (currently off of brodie and slaughter), i've encountered fewer pot-smoking neighbors.

i think it's b/c the jobs ppl down here are likely to hold do drug-testing whereas the ppl who live near the arboretum area have occupations that do not require testing.

before i moved, i would have argued that the opposite was true: more burners in the south than the north. of course, my "study" of the subject is completely non-scientific, but i still find it interesting.
posted by lord_wolf at 11:34 AM on February 10, 2003

You guys seem to think this is pretty funny, but gosh, maybe I'm just more patriotic than you, but I don't see what's so funny about supporting terrorism!!!
posted by Hildago at 11:43 AM on February 10, 2003

how in hell did dell market to corporate clients with stoner ben as their spokesman

Because he's so malleable after a sixer and a j??
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:53 AM on February 10, 2003

Dude, you're getting a cellmate!
posted by Sal Amander at 12:01 PM on February 10, 2003

He should've tried to hide the pot in his floppy drive.
posted by elwoodwiles at 12:52 PM on February 10, 2003

Jim Bruer wannabe. Yech.
posted by adampsyche at 12:53 PM on February 10, 2003

I'm waiting for the Smoking Gun photos of the blond intern from the new commercials.

*rrrrroooowwww*

(See, if I say it once then it's off my chest and I never have to think about it again. Just..so..many..commercials..can't..miss...her...)
posted by Tystnaden at 12:57 PM on February 10, 2003

I'm no fan of the commercials, but if Dell cans him because of this, I may reconsider my upcoming computer purchase. No one should lose their jobs over something this silly.

That said, the boy lives in New York. Hasn't he heard of delivery services? Dumbass.
posted by toothgnip at 1:00 PM on February 10, 2003

What makes delivery safer? Just curious.
posted by Espoo2 at 2:42 PM on February 10, 2003

Unpatriotic?

You mean eighty million Americans can be (gasp) wrong?
posted by LouReedsSon at 3:11 PM on February 10, 2003

What I want to know is-what were the Dell People smoking when they hired the kid in the first place?
posted by konolia at 3:31 PM on February 10, 2003

I love how he plays a california valley type stoner kid in the commercials, yet the actor actually smoking pot is supposed to come as a surprise? I guess it wasn't acting all along.

As to the above comment about "cleaning out the thugs," well that sounds like one of the better arguments for legalization I've seen in a long time.
posted by skallas at 7:20 PM on February 10, 2003

This is what happens when Dell stops putting in floppy drives. SOCIETY FUCKING FALLS APART!
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 7:36 PM on February 10, 2003

XQUZYPHYR: LOL
posted by delmoi at 8:59 PM on February 10, 2003

That dude must not have any friends or spots he hangs out in with a retinue of friendly people. You never buy weed on the street.
posted by crasspastor at 9:09 PM on February 10, 2003

Delivery is safer since the police aren't going to setup spy cameras in your abode to bust you for buying 1/4 ounce of weed. If you buy from some random thug on the street though, the police might notice, then arrest you and charge you with being a complete idiot.

One thing's for sure, I'm just glad that they got that bag of weed off the streets before it got a 14 year old girl pregnant!
posted by mosch at 10:26 PM on February 10, 2003

...14 year old girl pregnant! ... well said, mosch.

Espoo2 - Police need a warrant, or an undercover officer, to even be able to say they observed you purchasing narcotics in your abode as admissible evidence in court. If they have probable cause, ie: suspicious traffic in and out on a daily basis, they might be able to get a warrant to be on your property to try and observe an illegal transaction.

Also, with the New York Marijuana Delivery services, you can make a better assessment of quality of product and the legitimate weight of your purchase. The Smoking Gun arrest report said the officer observed him buying in excess of 24 grams, so probably at least an ounce, and the current going rate of an ounce of high grade weed (we'll assume he wasn't smoking shwag, but who knows) in NYC is $300.00 - $400.00, so this basically means the Dell (ex)spokesman was a friggin' moron for purchasing such a large quantity on the street - not just because the transaction took place where a cop saw it, but because he had no way of evaluating the weight or quality.
posted by jdaura at 12:47 AM on February 11, 2003

Now you see him, now you don't. The "Steven Sitelet" at Dell has been sanitized. What it looks like now:

Steven Sitelet post-bust

And what is in the Google cache (some links still work)

Steven Sitelet archived

And Dude merchandise has been marked down
All bongs half price
posted by Slagman at 4:12 PM on February 11, 2003