Lazy Americans
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 12:46 pm
Life imitating art???
Incredibly the following text was NOT lifted from The Onion website, but from a Chicago newspaper!
A Wisconsin man is blaming a cable TV company for his television addiction, his wife's 50-pound weight gain and his children being "lazy channel surfers."
A police report said Timothy Dumouchel, 48, of West Bend, Wis., came to the Fond du Lac office of Charter Communications the night of Dec. 23 with a small claims complaint, intimidated an employee and made "low-level threats."
Dumouchel told Charter he filed the complaint because his cable connection kept working 3-1/2 years after he asked that it be cut off.
"I believe that the reason I smoke and drink every day and my wife is overweight is because we watched TV every day for the last four years," Dumouchel wrote in the complaint in the police report.
Initially, Dumouchel said he would sue the cable company but later backed off. Still, he claims that the cable company "did not let me make a decision as to what was best for myself and my family and [they have been] keeping cable [coming] into my home for four years after I asked them to turn it off."
The police report said Dumouchel asked Charter to stop his cable service in August 1999 and was taken off the billing but not the service.
He told police he called several times to get the cable disconnected, but the free cable kept coming.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said he was asked by a group of reporters why he did not just cut the wire into his home. "I would never touch that box, because if I did, I would have to break the seal, and then I would have broken the law," he said.
The cable company seemed to shrug off Dumouchel's complaints. Said Charter spokesman John Miller: "Even though we consider our services to be a very powerful entertainment product, I don't think it's reached a medical level yet where it could be proved to be addictive."
Incredibly the following text was NOT lifted from The Onion website, but from a Chicago newspaper!
A Wisconsin man is blaming a cable TV company for his television addiction, his wife's 50-pound weight gain and his children being "lazy channel surfers."
A police report said Timothy Dumouchel, 48, of West Bend, Wis., came to the Fond du Lac office of Charter Communications the night of Dec. 23 with a small claims complaint, intimidated an employee and made "low-level threats."
Dumouchel told Charter he filed the complaint because his cable connection kept working 3-1/2 years after he asked that it be cut off.
"I believe that the reason I smoke and drink every day and my wife is overweight is because we watched TV every day for the last four years," Dumouchel wrote in the complaint in the police report.
Initially, Dumouchel said he would sue the cable company but later backed off. Still, he claims that the cable company "did not let me make a decision as to what was best for myself and my family and [they have been] keeping cable [coming] into my home for four years after I asked them to turn it off."
The police report said Dumouchel asked Charter to stop his cable service in August 1999 and was taken off the billing but not the service.
He told police he called several times to get the cable disconnected, but the free cable kept coming.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said he was asked by a group of reporters why he did not just cut the wire into his home. "I would never touch that box, because if I did, I would have to break the seal, and then I would have broken the law," he said.
The cable company seemed to shrug off Dumouchel's complaints. Said Charter spokesman John Miller: "Even though we consider our services to be a very powerful entertainment product, I don't think it's reached a medical level yet where it could be proved to be addictive."