back to article Motel guest trashes room to free imaginary 'midget'

A man trashed his South Carolina motel room on orders from a prank caller, who told him there was a "midget" imprisoned next door. Joseph Jones, 73, damaged a television, mirrors, and the wall between the rooms in an effort to free the captive homunculus, local TV station WYFF reports. The prankster rang the Motel 6 room at …

COMMENTS

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  1. Juan Inamillion
    Coat

    Nothing new...

    Well apart from the serious destruction.

    Years ago (before the internet...) we'd sometimes ring people up to ask where they wanted the half ton of coal dropped off as 'our driver will be there in 10 minutes and needs to offload'.... We could get them asking the neighbours as well sometimes...

    And then there was the 'Water Board' needing to check the 'systems' - could they turn on all their taps and flush the loo....

    Bored office life that was.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      Child labour is terrible

      Nobody made me work when I made those types of phone calls, then again it was illegal to hire 10 yr olds when I did it.

  2. Blofeld's Cat
    Troll

    Yes but...

    Did he free the midget?

    1. Andus McCoatover
      Headmaster

      'course he bloody did!

      Article plainly states:

      "..to release the aforementioned dwarf."

      Not "Try to". I rely on our intrepid EL Reg journalists as scholars and masters of English grammar.

      Er....

    2. Mr Young
      Thumb Up

      and...

      Is the dwarf ok?

      1. LuMan
        Troll

        Hey, hang on..

        Are we talking midget or dwarf??

        .

        .

        .

        Or troll?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No damages charge?

    He should have to pay for the damage as a "stupidity fee" and spend some time in jail, with a permanent "I'm a retard" mark on his record.

    Seriously, anyone that doesn't go "pull the other one, it's got bells on" to this sort of crap, deserves at least a night in the klink. I'd say "to think things over" but that's obviously not an activity he indulges in.

    I'm in Florida, the home of stupid old people, and every day the "consumer issues" column in the paper has at least one story of a stupid old woman being bilked of her life savings by some totally transparent scheme, like a 419 scam.

  4. Asgard
    WTF?

    With fools like this

    Its a display of jaw dropping stupidity. Its no wonder politicians can fool people like him in this world. I guess I don't need to ask who this moron will be voting for in the next presidential elections. :(

    1. Dagg Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      It's easy to fool politicians as well

      There was one who was convinced that they had to totally ban Di-hydrogen Monoxide as it was extremely dangerous.

      Paris as she would not have a clue either...

      1. Big Brother

        @dagg

        I remember an episode of Brass Eye by Chris Morris that convinced an MP (David Amess) about the dangers of 'Cake' a made up drugged. The MP raised a question about it in parliament - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbq3kc29Tmg

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      obvious

      probably be voting for a politician, the idiot!

    3. Captain TickTock
      Joke

      He'll voting for..

      an ally of North Korea...

  5. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Better than the Bates Motel

    ...the Saw Motel

  6. envmod

    i am the dwarf

    somebody come get me out!

  7. Mike Taylor

    Twit piques

    ?letom egdol der eht ta gniyats eh saw

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @With fools like this

    But meanwhile there was an item on the BBC website yesterday of an elderly woman who'd become trapped in her bathroom (forget details of how this happened) and tried to summon help by banging water pipes all night to raise attention ... however she was only rescued after 20 days when someone commented that they'd not seen her for some time and got the police to break into her flat - meanwhile the only reaction to her pipe banging was complaints from other residents to the authorities to find out who was doing DIY work at night and to make them stop it.

  9. heyrick Silver badge
    Alien

    Are you missing something in this article?

    "To get rid of them, the caller said, Jones needed to smash the TV with the toilet cistern lid, and then throw it out of the window. He complied."

    Is that all it takes? A few lies about super-whoo-hoo cameras and an instruction to smash the telly with the cistern lid.... and some dumbass actually DID so? Oh..... my..... God....

    Planet Zorg icon, 'cos he probably believes in alien abductions too.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Twit piques

    Mike ???!? ouy taht si - ouy taht saw ro

    1. Mike Taylor

      ?lliw

      si ylbaborp ti kniht i

  11. skeptical i

    And he's only 73 ...

    ... so he's got another election or three left in him. Heaven help us.

  12. Shades
    Thumb Up

    Brilliant!

    "Lilliputian liberation operation." made me laugh.

    And "having at" something or other is a phrase not nearly used enough, it reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail... "Have at you!"

  13. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    Extra costs?

    Did he have to pay for a cot for the dwarf?

  14. John Savard

    Sad

    It's terrible the police didn't find the prank caller, and make him pay every cent of the damage to the motel. Only then would justice be achieved.

    Of course, it's unfortunate people aren't all intelligent enough to be fooled by such nonsense, but if we can't fix that, it's no excuse for bad people to maliciously take advantage of this unfortunate situation. Similarly with virus writers, although I think we should be able to get secure operating systems someday.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In the UK yes...

    If it was in the UK, I'd believe the bit about secret cameras filming me. But probably not the bit about the dwarf. Which might put me off "watching" (or another word starting "wa" & ending "ing") any of the "pay TV" channels.

    1. adrianww
      Coat

      How on earth...

      ...do you go about warbling a pay TV channel. And why would you want to?

      I know, I know, coat, etc.

  16. bugalugs

    Convincing Prankster meets

    Gullible Old Fool = this !

    Miss Beeeee ????? Can we have a ? button alongside the thumbs up and down buttons please ? Readers would then be able to display simple bafflement at a comment and save time and interweb electrons. interactively yours, etctetc

    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Convincing Prankster meets

      I don't make the comment deelies. I only moderate. You'll have to make do with simply commenting 'Huh?' or 'I am baffled or bemused' when you are baffled or bemused.

  17. Minophis
    Black Helicopters

    How do we know...

    ...it was just a prank? Did the police search for the cameras, or the midget? It could have been a well meaning spy caught up in a tangled web of conspiracy, surviellance and midget hiding worthy of a hollywood summer blockbuster. He probably hung up when he realised that the authorities were there to avoid blowing his cover.

    Well it could!!!

    And before you start attacking idiot politicians it's worth remebering that Di-hydrogen Monoxide is the leading cause of drowning.

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