This Exists: Man Dials 911 To Have “TV News” Arrested

“I’m mad as hell,” the fed-up Howard Beale famously says in Network, “And I’m not going to take this anymore!” One 61-year-old Floridian (it’s always Florida, isn’t it?) took the sentiment to his own logical extreme when he called the police on the media. “I’m looking for TV news to be arrested,” Lawrence Gauthier told an unamused 911 dispatcher. A close listen to the phone call reveals Orlando’s NBC affiliate WESH—or, as Gauthier calls it, “channel 2 news”—to be the primary offender. WESH has yet to be apprehended.

In fact, it was Gauthier who was eventually arrested. According to WKMG,

On Sunday, Gauthier dialed 911 first to request that a deputy bring him business cards and later, while apparently intoxicated, he called 911 and told the dispatcher he wanted the media arrested, but admitted there was no emergency, deputies said.

When the dispatcher informed him that it was against the law to clog 911 with these sorts of trifling matters, he tried to pass it off as a mistake. “Well, when you get frustrated, you don’t know one way or the other,” he said, rather unconvincingly.

Later that day, he was taken to county jail. Meanwhile, the TV news is still on the loose. Too bad Gauthier doesn’t have a Comedy Central show or something, where such antics might’ve earned him a more heroic salute.

[Via Gawker]

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