This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays, we examine what the long-term outcome is if you fabricate an elaborate hoax about a child abduction. Then, we go back to the basics by providing some lessons in how to make and how not to make friends. Finally, we look at some, um, creative solutions that are being employed in law firms to get around pandemic protocols.
Follow the jump to learn more about this week’s weirdest and wackiest legal cases from around the globe!
Balloon Boy Gets Forgiven
Flashback to a simpler time. It’s 2009. We are all singing Poker Face at the club. We could go to a club. Michael Jackson was fondly remembered for being the King of Pop and not… well. Let’s not go there. And the world watched on as parents desperately searched for their missing son, dubbed Balloon Boy.
The story was that the boy had floated away in a hot air balloon. It became such a big deal that the National Guard was called out to search for him. And turns out, the parents had just squirrelled the boy away in their attic and were desperate for some attention. Naturally, the parents were charged with a series of offences to which they pleaded guilty for the hoax.
So why is this in Weird and Wacky Wednesdays now? Well, apparently the Governor of Colorado has used his powers to pardon the parents. The reasoning is that now is not the time to be saddled with a permanent criminal record for a national hoax surrounding a boy carried away in a balloon which… begs the question: when is?
That is NOT How You Make Friends
I remember being in preschool and kindergarten and receiving instruction from teachers on how to make friends. You know, find something you have in common, be nice, and ask to play. Those instructions are basically the same ones we use in adulthood except we ask people to drink a beer or a coffee. At least, we did in the beforetimes.
How NOT to make friends in the beforetimes, or even now, is pretty simple. And we can use the example of one man from North Dakota to learn that lesson. Apparently, after sending a friend request to a former colleague on Facebook, the man waited for a response that never came.
To try to get a response to the Facebook friend request, the man went to the home of his former coworker and kicked down the door, demanding that he accept the request.
Police were called, of course, and the would-be friend was charged with burglary and terrorizing.
Lawyers’ Offices Sure Look Different Now
When most people imagine going to a lawyers’ office, I’m sure they imagine seeing things like shelves full of books, meeting the lawyer in some big boardroom with crystal water glasses on the table and leather chairs with tall backs, and expensive art. I’m sure they don’t anticipate that their lawyer will be working out of a tent.
But apparently, at least one law firm has ordered a series of tents, which it has set up in the space where lawyers’ desks used to be. This is to address concerns that there is the potential spread of COVID-19 in the office.
Honestly, though, why not just let the lawyers work from home?
