dumb.

January 23, 2001 7:53 AM

dumb. (but then again, posting a large image file isn't really clever either.)
posted by tiaka (15 comments total)

"the police just shook their heads in amazement."

I hope that's not all they did.
posted by holgate at 8:10 AM on January 23, 2001

I'm most amazed by the statement that the guy was going to cut the load off AT THE BACK.

I think the cops should have just let him do that -- someone this stupid is going to strike again, and now I have to sit here wondering where his monstrous lack of intellect is going to attack next....
posted by aramaic at 8:26 AM on January 23, 2001

I've seen this picture before, and some of my friends (who are car experts) say that it WAS doctored... I'm interested to know what the rest of MeFi thinks.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 9:30 AM on January 23, 2001

Doctored how? If it is doctored, it's done pretty well. Look at the wheel wells for the back wheels. You can see crumpling where the rim got pushed into the car.

The shadows all seem consistant.

Look at the doors. The little line thingy (izzat "trim"?) is misaligned in a natural seeming way.

I'm certainly no photo or car whizz though, so I'd love to hear evidence of doctored-ness.
posted by cCranium at 9:43 AM on January 23, 2001

I believe I saw a photo of the same car taken from a different angle at Snopes, who seemed to buy it. I can't find a URL, though, so it's possible I'm mistaken.
posted by snarkout at 10:04 AM on January 23, 2001

Snopes page here.
posted by redfoxtail at 10:34 AM on January 23, 2001

PWA_Badboy, despite the evidence proving your friends wrong, I'd like to hear some of the reasons they figured it was fake, just for curiosity's sake.
posted by cCranium at 11:10 AM on January 23, 2001

The car is a VW Jetta with FL plates and the guy said he was headed for Annapolis! - Snopes

The car is a VW Jetta with Quebec plates and the guy said he was headed for Boucherville! - Mathboy

I wonder why it was necessary to regionalize the accompanying stories?
posted by xiffix at 11:15 AM on January 23, 2001

The witnesses said their physical state was OTHER than normal

maybe i'm being naiive, but what does this mean?
posted by o2b at 11:25 AM on January 23, 2001

Snopes does indeed think it's real, and had several other pix from other angles to prove it. *I* wanna see a picture of the waiver. Anyone live in that neighborhood and wanna go haunt lumber managers?
posted by baylink at 12:17 PM on January 23, 2001

Which neighborhood? Ft. Lauderdale or Waldorf, MD? Any idea which site posted first?
posted by xiffix at 12:38 PM on January 23, 2001

There are lots of Quebec folks in Fort Lauderdale, usually October through April or May. And they have a reputation of being cheap (not tipping at restaurants, etc.), which might be why they decided to haul 3,000 pounds of construction materials back to Canada on a Jetta instead of having it shipped or just buying it there. Just a theory.
posted by mtevis at 1:03 PM on January 23, 2001

I can buy that. Also, urban legends are, in fact, all about specific regionalizations and such. When "I read this stupid story in the paper" won't do, espcially since anyone else can (it's commoditized), you spice it up by saying "this happened to my uncle's buddy up in Waukegan". Why else would e-mail copies of the Craig Shergold legend continue to turn up under entirely different (fictitious) names?
posted by dhartung at 1:11 PM on January 23, 2001

When I had my restaurant in North Miami (I later lived in Ft. Lauderdale along the old Dixie), a lot of Canadians came by on vacation. Nice people and such. heh
posted by tiaka at 1:14 PM on January 23, 2001

"*I* wanna see a picture of the waiver. "

I actually heard an interview with someone who worked at Home Depot (I don't remember the context) who said that they had so many people trying to do stupid stuff with building supplies that this waiver was SOP.
posted by y6y6y6 at 2:18 PM on January 23, 2001