Text Messager During Movie gets $400 Fine
Melissa Nelson, 25, a Racine, Wisconsin woman was fined $400 for sending a text message in a movie theater. She claims she received a text message concerning her 5-year-old daughter and that she quietly sent one text message back. Police say there's a lot more (1) to the story.
As I mentioned in my post Things that tick me off, "People who talk in movies really piss me off. Let's all admit it - it's usually someone with three syllables in her name like Shaniqwa or other Ebonic name. If you stare in her direction as a polite hint that she is an uncivilized animal she takes great offense.
...
I can't wait for theaters to get cell-phone jammers."
The tattoo on Mrs Nelson's arm indicates how classy this woman is.
Unless you are a doctor or similar type professional person and are called for an emergency transplant, it is just barely permissible for you to have your cell on vibrate; but you must not open your phone in the theater proper. Quickly run out into a spot where the light of your cell will not distract viewers.
This means you should come early enough to the theater to grab an aisle seat so as to make for a facile escape and not disturb other theater goers.
All others should simply tell baby-sitters, grandparents or others who are watching your child not to call you unless your baby/infant/child has died or been kidnapped by Hungarian circus midgets.
Mrs. Nelson said she sent a text message in reply regarding her child. Obviously the first message she got couldn't have been important otherwise she would have bolted out of her seat to tend to her child. If it wasn't serious enough to run home for, then it wasn't serious enough to spend some time sending back a text message and annoying others.
ENDNOTES
(1):
FoxNews, 23 Apr 2008, Wisconsin Woman Claims Police Slapped Her With $400 Fine for Text Message During Movie
Nelson told MyFOXMilwaukee she received a text message concerning her 5-year-old daughter and that she quietly sent one text message back. Nelson’s friend, who was sitting next to her at the time, says no one complained or even noticed that Nelson was sending a text message on her phone.
...
The movie theater’s usher noticed Nelson’s phone by a small light blinking in the dark.
"He came over like, ‘Put that away.’ That’s how he said it," Nelson’s friend told MyFOXMilwaukee. "She’s like, ‘Just give me a second and I’ll be done.’ And he’s like, ‘Well I’m going to get security.’"
The security guard on duty was an officer with the Sturtevant Police Department.
"I don’t know if he was having a bad night, but from the moment he came into the theater he had an attitude," Nelson told MyFOXMilwaukee.
The Sturtevant police report claims just the opposite, with the officer claiming he repeatedly asked Nelson to put her phone away, but she kept arguing with him. She was given a $400 ticket for disorderly conduct.
