“George Doughty hung his latest hunting trophy on the wall of his Sportsman’s Bar and Restaurant. Then he went to jail. The problem was the trophy was Doughty’s laptop computer. He shot it four times, as customers watched, after it crashed once too often. He was jailed on suspicion of felony menacing, reckless endangerment and the prohibited use of weapons. ‘It’s sort of funny, because everybody always threatens their computers,’ said police Lt. Rick Bashor, seconds before his own police computer froze at police headquarters. Doughty was released Monday evening after spending a night in jail and is due in court Wednesday. In police reports, Doughty said that he realized afterward that he shouldn’t have shot his computer but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do,” reports The Associated Press.
According to the Boulder Daily Camera, Doughty, 48, owns the establishment. He entered the bar from his office, announced he was going to shoot his computer and returned to his office. After 30 minutes, police said, Doughty set his laptop on the floor 4 to 6 feet away from him, warned two customers at the bar to cover their ears and fired away. The computer took all the bullets and no one was injured.
Unfortunately, they left out two important bits of information of interest to MacDailyNews and our readers.
Paul Schultz, Lafayette’s Chief of Police told MacDailyNews that the laptop Doughty shot was a Dell. Lt. Rick Bashor’s police computer that crashed during his comments to AP is a Gateway. Did somebody say, “switch?”
Funny.
That is hilarious! “Dude, your shooting a Dell”! Someone should frame that story and send it to Mike Dell. Send it and ask, can he “innovate” a laptop that can withstand the normal abuse the machines get? As far as the cop’s computer freezing on him, too cool! The safety of our lives rest in the hands of a well trained peace officer, and his partner, a coffee stained Gateway, his information hub to fight crime!
Are you insinuating that because a barkeeper and a policeman can’t understand how to use their PC’s, that it wouldn’t have happened if they had a Mac or that PC’s are crashprone?
I don’t see how two isolated incidents have any meaning whatsoever!
Should happen more often, give the man a prize.
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Are you insinuating that because a barkeeper and a policeman can’t understand how to use their PC’s, that it wouldn’t have happened if they had a Mac or that PC’s are crashprone?
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That’s right, xp man. And I’m a windoze develper by trade. Though, I own a Mac.
Oh, God… we just had to hear from some PC (XP Man) whiner!! These guys are so dull they can’t even sense the comic in all this. Get a life, Man!!
Macs are not immune. If I was a hothead I would have shot my Macs long ago during their crashing extension conflicts in System 7 – OS 9. Even my OS X PowerBook would have taken a few bullets. Before I exchanged bad RAM, it was crashing all the time. They’re all nice and stable now, but really what we learned from this story is that we’re dealing with a violently impatient man.
During the ‘dark days’ of system7 thru’ OS9 many people claim that the Macs that they used were crashboxes.
Um.
If they actually knew anything about the Extensions folder; what was in it; what should be in it (INIT, get it, hehe); that ‘neato’ extensions that made googly eyes follow their cursor and multiple copies of ANY extension would obviously make problems. But MOST don’t.
How many times have I gone over to ‘see what the problem was’, only to find utter chaos in the Extensions folder. Five minutes later my friend is hugging me, praising me, et al. “Glory be, my computer works. I won’t buy that Dell!”
I’d pay good money to see the chalk mark on the floor in the shape of the Dell logo.
Uh… remember the guy who shot his iMac for eOpinions? It was used in their TV commerical. He shot it for pretty much the same reasons this guy did – only he was smarter and got paid for the priviledge.
I know people who have literally smashed their Macs over crashes – I even had to send a spare one of mine to a friend after they’d literally destroyed their Mac after it ate their work after a crash.
It’s a funny story – but don’t think it’s typical either ways…
Keep in mind, this is a mac site. we find this story humorous because it was a PC that was shot! If you are looking for unbiased opinions on silly stories like this, look elsewhere, or join in the laughter. It’s like looking for pro war sentiment from Sheryl Crow… This is not the place for it. I find the humor in this, simply because I replaced my Dell, instead of shooting it! The second option was still gratifying to think about!
In this case, the guy shot his own Dell computer because he was personally dissatisfied with it after paying for it and using it for a period of time. It’s a personal thing. He put it down like it was a lame horse. It was between him and the Dell. I once owned a Dell so I sympathize with the guy, especially now that my Macs are so reliable.
The iMac shooter was different because the iMac wasn’t his computer and he shot it on a firing range. He was like, “I’m too tough to use a girly computer like this. Computers shouldn’t be red.” BLAM. BLAM. BLAM. It was a commercial and not even that interesting.
We should all raise some money and get this guy a new iBook
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I personally would not be interested in loaning a spare “anything” to someone who had just smashed theirs.
From time to time this happens with both Wintel machines and Macs. I know it’s a small thing that doesn’t make much of a case for one platform over the other but I can only compare it to my own experiences. The context is unique to each of us.
At the one year/two month point, after buying my very first Mac (2X1Gig Quicksilver) I have not had one problem. Nothing. It’s perfect so far. Switched a little over a year ago and don’t have regret one.
tell Apple to invite him and the police for a new switch tv ad!
Wow, the laptop is cool.
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