Whether the excuses come from a person in Florida or another state, some of the most ridiculous excuses heard by a judge make you wonder.
It’s become a “thing” that strange things happen in Florida that make people wonder what those involved were thinking at the time. Whether it’s a “Florida Man” moment or the moment for a person in another state, when some people say crazy things in court, the judge can often react in a crazy way as well.
Here are some of the most ridiculous excuses ever given in court.
A badly typed doctor’s note
Why wouldn’t you report to your probation meetings or attend the court-ordered community service? For some, this seems like an intrusion in their lives and something they don’t feel they should have to do. While a doctor’s note might get you out of some meetings or functions, when the note is badly typed and comes from a nonexistent doctor, it quickly raises the judge’s suspicions and leads to jail time, rather than probation time.
I would have asked
One man, out for a late night walk, entered the garden property of the victim he burglarized and claimed he would have knocked on the door and asked for items instead of simply taking them. Of course, who is going to deny an armed man anything he wants, especially if he knocks on the door? This is one of the most ridiculous excuses ever heard by a judge, and thankfully, the man was put in handcuffs and taken away before he got the chance to burglarize the home.
Lost, found, looking for help
In another case of breaking and entering into homes of strangers, one person claims she would ask homeowners if she could borrow a bicycle pump if they had found her lost dog, or if they needed help renovating their homes. While these all sound like things you might ask a neighbor or someone from their front porch, this person told the judge she was asking these questions once she was inside the home, after not being invited, but simply breaking into the homes of unsuspecting victims.
Act like you own it
In another case of burglary, when a man was caught loading equipment, tools, and other items into his car, he turned to the homeowner and said, “Thanks, I’ll see you later,” in front of the police, which gave him a slight head start on them. When confronted in court, he gave one of the most ridiculous excuses ever heard by a judge, which was that he knew if he acted like he belonged there and owned the items, he had a good chance of getting away with the crime.
Take the victim with you
Two people were witnessed having an argument in a parking lot, one a man, the other a woman. The man said to the woman, “Shut up, Mom, I’m driving tonight,” but she wasn’t his mother. Instead, he used this as a way to avoid suspicion and steal the car with the woman in it with him. As it turns out, he simply wanted a ride home and dumped the car and the woman about two miles away from his home, where police eventually found him.
Child sex scandal with a twist
Child sex scandals are no laughing matter, but when one victim explained how he had sent Facebook messages to the victims in the case, the jury and the judge had a hard time containing their laughter at one of the most ridiculous excuses and explanations ever heard in court. This person was pleading not guilty but quickly incriminated themselves during the case, which eventually turned into a guilty plea once the admission of guilt was entered.
Blame it on the dog
In another case of things gone terribly wrong, one criminal pointed a shotgun out of a window at police as they attempted to peacefully arrest him. He blamed the incident of pointing the gun at police on his dog. This ridiculous excuse became much more than laughter in the courtroom and caused the judge to order a psychological evaluation of the defendant to be performed to learn whether or not he was serious about the dog holding a shotgun. The defendant was found to be competent, but not necessarily of the highest intelligence.
These are just a few of the most ridiculous excuses heard in court by judges and juries, reminding us that while Florida Man incidents often happen in the Sunshine State, they are not limited to the state itself.
Sarah Johnson