crazy old world

A lot of times, there are stories in the news (even the local news) that just distress me and make me sad and make me wonder about the state of humanity.

But not this story. This story just made me laugh and shake my head at the weirdness of human behavior. Oh, I know it's wrong to laugh at others' misfortunes, but sometimes the others make it really hard NOT to. (And I will hasten to add: no one was hurt in this situation).

Anyway. This story was in the local paper yesterday. I might not have read it except it happened just a few blocks away from my house. It took place early (3 am to about 6 am) Sunday morning. I guess I miss all the exciting things by sleeping at night.

Anyway, the gist of the story was a man was arrested after climbing a tree while drunk and creating a disturbance. But the story is much stranger than that...

Apparently the man and his wife were having an argument about her brother, who had fallen out of the tree a couple of years earlier. (In the course of this argument, the man allegedly consumed "about 12 beers"). The man then climbed the tree.

[I can totally imagine how that argument went: the wife is saying something to the effect that no grown man can climb a tree; the branches won't support him. So the husband responds something like, "Yeah? Well, watch this!" and climbed the tree.

Incidentally, I think I remember that Jeff Foxworthy once said that the classic redneck "last words" were some variant of "Yeah? Well, watch this!" I realize I am making a big assumption here - that the man involved was a redneck. But I'm inclined to think that, if you've ever been arrested for climbing a tree while drunk after arguing with your wife...you might be a redneck.]

The police showed up - I guess the wife called them, that wasn't specified in the article. They talked with the man who refused to come down. So they sent for a bucket truck from the fire department (just a block or two away) and a couple of police went up in the bucket. The man threw branches at them (bad move there) and climbed higher in the tree. So the cops came back down ("for safety reasons," the article said). The firefighters went back to their station, but a couple cops stayed behind.

Oh yeah, while this was all going on, the man's sister showed up. She started climbing the tree threatening to beat him up when she got to him, but she came back down. And she was arrested, because while she was in the tree, the cops checked up on her and found out she had some outstanding warrants.

Anyway - the man stayed in the tree a couple hours. He had his cell phone with him and could be heard making calls, including a call where he asked the person on the other end of the line whether he should surrender to the police or not. ("Phone-a-Friend"?). Finally, he called his wife, told her to drive around the block, and if she was not followed, he would come down (????)

He did come down, but ran into the house and locked himself in a bathroom (Well, I'm thinkin' - 12 beers will have an eventual effect). When he came out, he was arrested on charges of endangering police (because he threw stuff at them) and generally creating a nuisance. And resisting officers.

The last line of the article was something like: the case has gone to the district attorney, who will figure out charges.

Now, the local D.A. is a friend of mine. And I totally don't envy her having to sort out this mess. But still - this is just one of those bizarre stories. It almost sounds like a bad sitcom plot.