Man In Florida Accused Of Trying To Use Potato As Silencer

[The Straight Story]

Man In Florida Accused Of Trying To Use Potato As Silencer

POSTED: 11:43 pm EDT June 3, 2006
UPDATED: 11:54 pm EDT June 3, 2006

MIAMI -- A man is accused of putting a potato on the barrel of a gun, believing the spud would act as a silencer and muffle the shooting of a woman, according to Miami-Dade police.

Police said Shane Thompson carved a hole in a potato with a spoon, stuck his gun inside and threatened to shoot the mother of his child. Thompson reportedly told her that no one would hear the shot, because of the potato's silencing qualities.

Police said he never fired the potato-tipped gun, but instead hit the woman several times. Thompson has been charged with false imprisonment, aggravated assault and battery.

While spuds are nutritious, the silencer potato is an urban legend dating to the 1920s. Thompson apparently isn't alone in believing the myth.

http://www.local6.com/news/9317414/detail.html

One less repug voter on the streets.

[bahrbearian]

1. Only in Bush-World

[Richard Steele]

2. It's just amazing that the POTATO angle is what gets the headline here. nm

[Giant Robot]

3. Wasn't there a CSI epsiode

where the criminal used a potato as a silencer in the robbery of some store?

[Blue_Tires]

6. it was in the movie "South Central" as well, iirc

[Exultant Democracy]

4. Florida is having an even stranger week then normal

[soothsayer]

5. Did he beat her with the potato?

Does that make it a whipped potato?

[BringEmOn]

7. To a freeper, that's "Potatoe."

[ladjf]

8. Unless the potato had a hole all the way through, the shooter

could expect to have his hand blown off.