Our older readers will remember the constant frustration and aggravation with having rent movies from a video store.
I remember being forced to pay $120 after I left my copy of Hellraiser in the car and it melted in the sun. Shit, you couldn’t even buy a copy of a film you loved until it was placed on the used rack 6 months after release. There were also the insane “failure to reward” charges that were, I assure you, very real.
Shit, the late fees were like having a mobster turn you upside down and shake all the coins out of your pockets.
So, ready this story about a man being arrested 14 years after failing to return a copy of Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered is not only hilarious, but also vomit inducing.
The story hails out of Concord, North Carolina, where James Meyers was arrested for failing to return a 2002 VHS rental movie, Freddy Got Fingered.
Meyers showed Channel 9, video above, the arrest warrant Wednesday. It shows Meyers is charged with failure to return rental property, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $200.
Explained the site:
“The rental store in Kannapolis, J&J’s Video, has since closed, but Meyers was still given an April 27 court date for failing to return the gross-out comedy about a cartoonist returning home to live with his parents.
Meyers said he was driving his daughter to school on Concord Parkway Tuesday morning when a Concord police officer pulled him over for a tail-light that was out.
Meyers said the officer ran his license and approximately 25 minutes later asked him to step out of the vehicle.
“The officer said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this but there’s a warrant out for your arrest from 2002. Apparently you rented the movie “Freddy Got Fingered” and never returned it.’ I thought he was joking,” said Meyers.
Meyers said the officers were very polite and professional. They let him take his daughter to school and go to work as long as he promised to turn himself into the police department later that day.
Meyers said he thought everything would get straightened out at the department. He was surprised when officers arrested him and then took him to the magistrate’s office.
“For the first time I got put in handcuffs,” said Meyers.
Meyers said he vaguely remembers renting the particular movie from the family-owned video store in Kannapolis.
On Wednesday night, Meyers received a call from Green, the writer-director-star of “Freddy” who reached out after Meyers’ friend shared the story with him on Twitter, according to The New York Daily News.
I just saw this and I am struggling to believe it is real. https://t.co/GrTXoUj29X
— Tom Green (@tomgreenlive) March 24, 2016
Green, who is currently on a stand-up comedy tour in Australia, told the Daily News that he is happy to support fans of his film, which was the subject of terrible reviews and currently has an 11 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The 44-year-old comedian told the Daily News that he could put in a good word with the court or even help out financially as long as the outcome doesn’t involve an outrageous sum.
“If it’s 200 bucks of course I’ll pay it for him, just for the principle of the thing,” Green said.
Meyers told Channel 9 he can only hope the charges get dismissed.
He added that he had been pulled over since the warrant was issued in 2002, but had never heard about the lost tape.
“They’re not focusing on the crimes I think they should be focusing on,” said Meyers. “That hour the cops sat out there with me, the hour and a half I was down in the magistrate’s office could have been spent somewhere else.”