Possumblog

Perpetuating the Stereotype, Volume---uhhmm, I seem to have lost count...

Four neighbors arrested for fight over cigarette butt

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — A cigarette butt casually tossed to the ground sparked a daylong argument between four neighbors that escalated into a fight that sent at least three of them to the hospital and got them all arrested.

"It's sad that people were injured over a cigarette butt," Lt. Chris Mathews, spokesman for the Decatur Police Department, said Thursday.

Sad, yes, but still, COMEDY GOLD!

Police said a guest visiting Bobby Joe Ray, 42, tossed a cigarette butt toward the edge of Ray's yard on Aug. 4. The butt landed near a fence belonging to Ray's neighbor, Michael Alan Bradford, 24. Bradford got angry and started shouting about it.

The odds of someone in this story being named Bobby Joe Ray?

You have to figure they're about even.

Several residents of the neighborhood said Ray and Bradford argued about the butt all day, Mathews said, and eventually Ray's sister, Shirley Lynn Ray White, 32, who lives across the street, tangled with Bradford's wife, Health Mills Bradford, [sic. Her name is actually "Heather" we learn later. But she's probably not the same Heather Mills who was married to Paul McCartney. And I don't know if she has a fake leg or not. As with the previous odds-making, I'd give it about an even chance. Ed.] 27, and the men soon joined in.

Reminds me somewhat of the old Todd Rundgren tune, "Bang on the Drum All Day," as in, "I'm Gonna Argue 'Bout the Butt All Day!"

At least three went to the hospital for treatment of injuries, and all four were arrested Tuesday and were released on bond the same day.

Shirley Lynn Ray White is charged with third-degree assault. Bobby Joe Ray and Heather Mills Bradford are charged with harassment. Michael Alan Bradford is charged with harassment and third-degree assault.

Officials confirm that there is no ordinance in Decatur prohibiting stupidity.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at August 10, 2006 02:48 PM