'Freddy Got Fingered' VHS Rental From 2002 Lands Man In Jail

In this digital age, there's something that you don't really think about anymore. Late fees for video rentals. Sure, if you go to a Redbox and grab a DVD and forget about it, you'll still get hit with the fees, but at some point they just charge you for the DVD and that's the end of it. Now if you happened to rent a movie such as, oh I don't know, Freddy Got Fingered, back in 2002, failing to return it could land you in jail. And that's exactly what happened to one man in North Carolina.

Back in 2002, James Meyers picked up a copy of Freddy Got Fingered on VHS. The movie never made its way back to the (now defunct) video store, and Meyers forgot about it. While he didn't make any comments about what happened to the movie, it's likely that sometime around the scene with the elephant, the VHS was ejected and promptly destroyed, so that it could never harm anyone else again.

As it turns out, when he failed to return the tape, the video rental company brought a civil suit against Meyers, and it was turned into a criminal case. An arrest warrant was issued for Meyers, but it was apparently never served. He only found out about it when he was stopped by an officer for a burned out tail light.

Luckily for Meyers, the officer that stopped him noticed that he had his daughter with him, and instead of arresting him on the spot, offered to let him go, with the promise that he would stop into the police station to clear up the matter. Once there, Meyers was taken into custody, and later released with a written promise to appear in court.

Tom Green caught wind of the story and called Meyers, and even offered to pay off the fine.

What's interesting about the case is the fact that the video rental store has been out of business for years. It's unlikely that the court case will actually go anywhere, since the company seeking the fine no longer exists.