The late comedian George Carlin famously said ““think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” One individual proved Carlin correct last week by making a series of moronic moves in a single phone call.
On February 19, unidentified male called police threatening to blow up the landmark Hollywood sign unless he received a “mere” $10,000 according to TMZ.
This undertaking raises a series of questions regarding what this man was thinking (assuming he was engaging in any actual thought).
First question: one, why dial the police with a bomb threat? You are asking to be charged with a serious crime and completely lose your freedom.
Second: Why ask for $10,000? The Hollywood sign was sold for $450,400 back in 2005.
The sign first went up over Los Angeles at a cost of $21,000.
Here’s the kicker, though: not only was this man calling the police with a bomb threat unless he got a ransom, he dialed the wrong police department.
The idiot called Hollywood, Florida. This is a city on the eastern side of the Florida peninsula, about 10 miles south of Ft. Lauderdale and about 20 miles north of Miami.
While it’s somewhat understandable to mix up places with the same name, the big giveaway should have been Hollywood in California does not have it’s own police department. It is under the LAPD.
Furthermore, Hollywood is not an actual city but rather a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
The Hollywood, Florida Police Department then alerted the LAPD to inform them of the bomb threat they received. The threat was later determined to be a total hoax and no arrests were made.
The man should count himself lucky he has not only avoided charges for the bomb threat, but that stupidity is not a crime. If the latter were, he might be looking at life behind bars.