KARE: Man Shoots TV Over Converter Confusion
Missouri man angered about losing cable and being unable to get new converter box to work
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/19/2009 4:00:00 PM
Filed at 9:53 a.m. EST on Feb. 20, 2009
OK, so the DTV transition hasn't been perfect.
While the early analog-cutoff of 421 TV stations on Feb. 17 has gone relative smoothly according to most reports, that was not the case of at least one Missouri man, according to KARE-TV Minneapolis-ST. Paul.
The station reports that a 70-year-old Joplin man was arrested and charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm after shooting his TV set. Responding to a report of shots being fired, the station reported, the police found the man angry that he had both lost his cable and had been unable to get his new DTV converter box to work.
According to the man's wife, he had been drinking.
Talkback
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"he should not have been arrested"
Yeah, discharging several rounds from a firearm into your television in a populated area is a great idea. You're an idiot.
Me - 2/27/2009 8:29:04 PM EST -
Elvis would have shot his TV if he would have lived to see the DTV transition.
Elvis - 2/26/2009 1:25:00 PM EST -
I shot my TV in 1998 after CBS and ABC started putting their logos onscreen all the time, after NBC and Fox were already doing it for a while.
Alan Smithee - 2/24/2009 5:55:46 AM EST -
Though he is quite inept with his equipment, he should not have been arrested.
So, he does not have the right to destroy his equipment with a gun. He could have done worse like using some dynamite on it.
FR007 - 2/23/2009 6:42:52 AM EST -
1. The guy was 70, that doesn't mean he represents that America is "stupid."
2. Which is stupider, an elderly man who can't figure out technology, or us thinking that it's really that important for us to be forced to buy a converter box because standard television signals are being re-jumbled up? I think the latter.
JKC - 2/23/2009 3:35:54 AM EST
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