wither in the light

Charter Communications, a cable TV provider, gave Timothy Dumouchel more than four years of free service when they failed to actually disconnect his cable at the time he canceled his account. Dumouchel blames Charter for his TV addiction, his wife's 50-pound weight gain, and his children being "lazy channel surfers". And since he's an American, he's doing something about it: suing the cable company.

Charter employees called police to the local office... after Dumouchel showed up with a small claims complaint, reportedly intimidated an employee and made "low-level threats" to employees' safety, according to a police report.

The report states Dumouchel gave an employee five minutes to get a supervisor to talk to him or their next contact would be "in the ocean with the sharks."

According to the report, Dumouchel told Charter employees he plans to sue because his cable connection remained intact four years after he tried to get it canceled.

The result was that he and his family got free cable from August of 1999 to Dec. 23, 2003.

"I believe that the reason I smoke and drink every day and my wife is overweight is because we watched TV every day for the last four years," Dumouchel stated in a written complaint against the company, included in a Fond du Lac police report.

"But the reason I am suing Charter is they did not let me make a decision as to what was best for myself and my family and (they have been) keeping cable (coming) into my home for four years after I asked them to turn it off."

Anne-Marie had a great idea: anytime a judge determines a lawsuit to be frivolous, they should sentence the plaintiff to community service. She's a bit more compassionate than I... I was thinking something more along the lines of a trap door, a dark chute, a dank cell, and some hungry ferrets.