When I am at a theater, I often get text rage when I see someone who thinks they are too cool/important to turn their cell phone off during a movie. The whole time I’m wondering how much trouble I could get into if I told that person to “stop texting before I shove that phone up their ass” then proceed to slam their head into the seat in front of them. Obviously I have an anger problem that I need to get through but that shit is uncool.
I’m sure you get pissed about it too. That’s why it was so awesome when The Alamo Drafthouse kicked that dumb bitch out of their theater then humiliated her by playing the voice mail she left the establishment. Kudos again to you gentlemen! Don’t you wish all theaters were like that?
Well, they aren’t. Apparently some parts of Texas are cooler than others.
A woman in a Texas theater tapped a guy on the shoulder in front of her to ask him to please turn his phone off. Next thing she knows the guy freaks out and the woman later gets slapped with a $260 fine. WTF indeed.
Meet Dale Fout and Brenda Godwin. Fout describes himself at 220-pounds as a “pretty big guy. I’m broad. I’m not fat. Used to play football.” Godwin says she is a 136-pound skin care specialist. Here is both sides of the story:
Her side
“He had his phone out. The light was shining at me. I’m thinking, ‘He’s going to turn it off.'” But he didn’t. ‘OK, this is ridiculous.’ So I reached over and tapped him on the shoulder. It was very bright. I was only trying to get his attention. He whipped around and said, ‘Don’t ever touch me.’ I was a little taken aback. ‘I wouldn’t have touched you if you didn’t have your phone out.’
“He jumps up and whirls around towards me and says, ‘I am charging you with assault,’ and he flew out of the theater.”
His side
“I got a text, and I responded to it because it was something important. It was something that was on a deadline situation, OK. I held it against my chest purposely where I could barely see it. … I could text but hide the majority of the light coming from the phone.
“She said something. I couldn’t make it out. That’s why I turned. She was probably saying something like, ‘Get off your phone.’ I turned, and she pushed. She just happened to push my neck at the time my neck was in an awkward position. Kinda like having a little fender bender, and you get a little whiplash in your neck, you know.”
Regardless of the he said/she said, Fout still whined like a baby and complained to manager to call the police on the woman. It’s not like she put him in a choke hold or anything. The end result came down to a ticket for assault by contact for Godwin and she ended up paying a $260. She only paid because she lives out of state and said it would be too expensive to come back to fight the charges. Police say it is merely a misdemeanor.
To read the ordeal in its entirety go here. To read Fout’s douhey response on the backlash to which he says that if anyone confronted him on this they would probably “pee and crap their drawers”, venture here.