Kentucky Teenager Banned from saying Bingo

Unbelievably a teenager who lives in Kentucky has been banned by a judge for six months from saying the word ‘Bingo’ – as they say, only in America.

Has the world gone stark raving mad, or is it just me who thinks this is a crazy? April fool’s day is in a week’s time, but this is for real and no joke :).

18 year old Austyn Whaley and a group of his friends apparently run into a club in Covington, Kentucky and shouted ‘Bingo’ during one of their sessions last month.

There were a lot of elderly people reportedly playing the game at the time and the interruption by Austyn and his mates was said to have caused quite a lot of upset and disruption. The bingo game had to be stopped and was not resumed for several minutes………

Off duty Sergeant Richard Webster, was working as a security guard in the club at the time said, “People take their bingo very seriously. The incident caused huge disruption, the players, who were mainly elderly women, didn’t take kindly to their game being interrupted and began to shout and swear at Whaley.

Austyn could have been given a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail and a $250 fine for his ‘Bingo’ outburst, but the judge ‘who was said to be surprised by the case coming to court’ choose to ban him from saying the word bingo for six months.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtfBnjhxg7c

In a news report video clip (in which the reporters also found amusing) Austyn said, he thought it was funny, but the patrons of the club did not think so and neither did the policeman who arrested him for disorderly conduct. He went on to say, he was glad the judge also thought the charge was crazy.

Austyn’s family are trying to help him stick to the ban by keeping him away from the bingo club.

How would they even begin to implement such a ban? He could say the word bingo whenever he is on his own and no one would know? Surely they would have to get taped evidence of him saying ‘bingo’. Funnily enough, in the news video clip I viewed there is a ‘censored’ word at the start, in which we are sure Austyn says bingo – but it has been blacked out :).

I thought I had heard it all in the competitive world of bingo, but I was wrong!