A “Freddy Got Fingered” VHS video rental that was 14 years late got a North Carolina man arrested this week.
“I thought he was joking ,” said James Meyers, who told
WSOC-TV that he was driving his daughter to school in Concord when he was pulled over for a broken taillight and told that there was a warrant for his arrest from 2002.
The officer allowed him to take his daughter to school and go to work on his promise of returning to the police department, where he was arrested and given an April 27 court date.
“For the first time I got put in handcuffs,” Meyers told the station.
Meyers was charged with failure to return rental property, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $200. The rental store in Salisbury, J&J’s Video, has since closed.
The bizarre story went viral, catching the attention of Tom Green, the star of “Freddy Got Fingered.”
Green offered to support Meyers and pay the fine.
“If it’s 200 bucks of course I’ll pay it for him, just for the principle of the thing,” Green said, according to the
New York Daily News.
Meyers, a 37-year-old single dad, works as a DJ and no longer owns a VHS player, the Daily News noted.
Meyers was transferred to the Cabarrus County Jail and released on a written promise,
ABC News reported.
“They were chitchatting with me and talking about how ridiculous this is. Then they arrested me,” Meyers told the network.
Meyers said the incident humiliated him and frightened his daughter. A phone call from Green brightened his mood.
“Tom Green called and started singing to me on the other end of the phone,” Meyers told ABC News. “He said not to worry and he can help anyway he can, and please keep in contact with him and keep him updated. He was so cool. He was a class act. It made me feel a lot better because of all the stress that is going on.”
Twitter users commented, naturally.
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