On Monday, John Weatherly, age 60, appeared in court to face kidnapping charges stemming from an incident in March, 2007 when he allegedly detained a Comacst technician, The Tennessean reports. According to the police affidavit, Weatherly deadbolted his door and threatened the technician with a German Shephard and would not allow the tech to leave until he fixed his television. The judge ordered a mental evaluation for Weatherly. More, inside…
The article says,
In Weatherly’s case, he says he never kidnapped the technician and he never threatened him with his dog. He admits to being angry and dissatisfied.
“After you pay a monthly fee you expect some service,” he said. “But why would I kidnap the cable guy? I was polite to him and told him to leave. The TV was under warranty.”
Because it’s a pending police matter, Comcast’s policy is not to comment, said Terri Weldon, a spokeswoman. “We cooperated fully with the police, and the report should relate everything that happened,” Weldon said.
When asked about disgruntled customers who spawned several opposing Web sites, Weldon said customer service is Comcast’s top priority.
Weatherly’s version of events differs from the affidavits. The technician arrived several days after he logged the complaint, Weatherly said. The Donelson retiree had complained that his new Sony TV had no picture.
Weatherly said the technician dismantled his surround sound system and didn’t fix it. Unhappy with what happened, Weatherly said, he told him to leave it as it was because the TV was under warranty.
Comcast drives us insane too, but Mr. Weatherly, please get a grip. We hope everything goes well with your mental evaluation and you get your problems sorted out. If you are lonely in the meantime, we’re sure you would have a lot in common with the smashem-up hammer-totin granny.
Cable man’s alleged abductor ordered to get mental exam [The Tennessean] (Thanks to Econobiker!)
(Photo: Getty)
More From Consumerist
-
Lawyer Insists He’s Innocent Of Death Profiteering And Identity Theft, Wants New Trial
-
Macy’s Fails At Another Attempt To Block JCPenney From Selling Martha Stewart Wares
-
Stealing A Meal From Waffle House At Gunpoint Will Earn You 35 Years In The Hoosegow
-
Judge Orders Cops To Return Marijuana To Man Pulled Over For Speeding A Year Ago
-
Judge Tries, Again, To Slap Wells Fargo With $203 Million For Overdraft Policy
Maybe my body will make the TSA agent throw up and ruin the machine….
This is interesting and all, but are you really insane for threatening Comcast employees? i mean after all they are the nexus of all evil
Kidnapping Technicians/Tellers/Mortgage Brokers > EECB
Did it work? Is his cable working?
That’s obviously the most important thing here.
Also, we need a new nickname for this technique.
Nuclear option?
@Wormfather: Well, this certainly did get him some attention.
I can’t blame this guy for being mad and wanting to detain the tech. We’ve all been there; but the line between sanity and insanity is actually following through on one’s sadistic fantasies (i.e. wanting to detain the tech vs actually detaining the tech)
Now that’s taking it seriously!
I want to be on the jury. John Wetherly wouldn’t have to worry about being convicted.
Justified.
I saw this story on the news last night. He’s one creepy-looking dude. BTW, he has Dish Network now.
The judge should get his head examined. The man finally got a Comcast Tech at his house! Of course he detained him until the TV was fixed.
@Jones91: Yes, but he threatened a human, not some Comcast cardboard sign.
So, Josef Fritzl is going by “John Weatherly” now, is he? The Comcast guy is just lucky wasn’t forced to have seven kids.
chances are like most comcast techs this guy had no idea what he was doing! Moved into an apt in boston last september. The first rep came, spent 2+ hours running up, down, and all over the place. Was supposed to set up 4 cable boxes, he could only get 1 working. Next guy comes back like 3 weeks later, mind you nothing has changed, and is in and out in 20 min. When i called comcast to get my 2nd instillation fee waived, ended up speaking to manager, and despite holding the work order from the initial set up, she had the brass to tell me that it was not on record?! Comcast sucks!
Wait, fixing his TV or fixing his cable for television?
Not to side with Comcast, but working as an IT Tech for another company, you get people who want you to fix stuff that’s wrong with their electronics/computers that you have nothing to do with and can’t support. Weatherly says his NEW TV isn’t displaying a picture – if the comcast guy does his best but in the end says, “You know, your signal checks out, there must be a problem with the TV,” then, you know, there might be a problem with the TV.
It’s even funnier because the guy claims that his TV was still under warranty so he let him leave – those words probably came from the TECH’s mouth and were not an original idea of John Weatherly. I’ve seen that exact thing happen to me (POed customer, abusive, then suddenly changing their story) if you replace the word “TV” with “Printer” and the word “Comcast Tech” with “Computer Tech”, right down to the client claiming all along he knew it was an under-warranty peripheral device problem – yet still logging the ticket with our help desk.
This belongs on Fark.com with a HERO tag.
Ahh…..crazy Nashvillians give us sane ones a bad name.
Wait, is it finally ok to blame the victim?
The real shame is that the repair was not at a WalMart. Then the guy could have asked the bag checkers to detain the guy and avoided all the hassle.
Wow, how can a judge order that? I mean really, where was the evidence?
Unless the police had to bust down the door to save the guy, I don’t see how that worked…
Seems like the Comcast person is not the only one doing their job wrong.
Does all it take these days is just to accuse someone of something?
Oh, sweet! I’ve always resisted the urge to do that because my DSL guy’s an asshole.