Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Calling tech support

We all get angry sometimes. We all tend to lash out at things that we see as being the cause of that anger, whether or not they are truly the culprit. But how often do we see the police taking our side in the dispute?

A man in Hanover, Germany, recently had such an experience, after he had alarmed his neighbors by throwing his computer out of the window of his apartment. When the police responded, they found the man, who said he was simply "annoyed with his computer". The cops decided against charging the man because, according to a police spokesman, "Who hasn't felt like doing that?". Instead of charges, the man was required to sweep up the electronic debris.

At first, we're a little amazed that the German police were so willing to let this go past, but then we recall that a large number of people do experience frustrations due to electronic devices (we have a particular loathing for PDAs... and we don't mean holding hands at a park). So yes, on some levels, it makes perfect sense that the man would get away with a mere sweeping. We're expecting that he was probably doing quite well in a game of The Sims, and got irritated when he couldn't get the characters to wash their hands or their dishes anymore. Plus, he'd spent all of his Simoleons on a swimming pool that they never bothered going into, instead preferring to sit around the cheap television set, watching episodes of whatever it is video game characters watch.

Of course, this is also the country where people's feet smell like corpses, and a little cleavage can bring a bus to a screeching halt (as opposed to here in America, where it just slows down construction), so nothing surprises us anymore.

No comments: