Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Slacker Snob Nets Fraud Charge
Boston, MA - Sometimes a big lie works the best, but only for awhile. A Massachusetts court today heard the case of a Boston man who successfully dodged work for over a year after claiming he had been transformed into a giant cockroach.
Daniel Levesque, a junior copywriter for the weekly advertising supplement The Boston Sunshine, was charged with two counts of fraud after bilking both his employer and the Workers Compensation Board out of over $30,000.
Levesque, who holds a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Harvard University had long been unhappy with his job with the paper and was widely unpopular with fellow employees.
"He was always letting you know that he thought he was too good for the job he was doing and that he felt insulted by having to work with 'plebians' like us," one co-worker said.
On the morning of November 30, 2004, Levesque called in sick citing his alleged insectoid transformation. He subsequently filed for a paid leave-of-absence, followed by a successful Workers Compensation claim based on his contention that his cockroach tentacles left him unable to use a computer.
Levesque appeared well on his way to getting away with the scam until his former editor picked up a comic-book adaptation of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The classic existential novel describes the tribulations of the main character, Gregor Samsa, who inexplicably turns into a cockroach. On closer examination, it turned out that Levesque had lifted entire sections of the book to describe his condition in his Workers Compensation submissions.
In addition to the fraud charges, Levesque has been disciplined by the Society of Professional Journalists for plagarism.
Levesque remained defiant to the end.
"Frankly, I'm astonished those neanderthals ever heard of Franz Kafka. Why am I not surprised that they found him in a comic book?" Levesque said.
posted by Mentok @ 1:27 p.m.,
4 Comments:
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At 9:08 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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Well that's one less excuse. Thanks a lot Daniel! -
At 1:10 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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Yes, plebians. Not a reference to your use of the word, by the way. In college, my buddies and I, who were all big movie buffs, used to use the word with great sophormoric disdain for those we figured had inferior tastes in cinema.
So no offence intended. I am, after all, only 56% evil. ;-) -
At 6:13 p.m.,
Gyrobo said...
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Comic books raised a generation.
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At 8:27 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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Mentok reads Archie.
