14 DAY TRIAL // Of all the things to get punched in the face for (not that this is something you should ever wish to happen to you or anyone else), one 64-year-old man got punched three times for farting in a woman’s face, The Smoking Gun reports.
Jessica Cerney, who is 33 years old and has been living with the man, identified as Darrell McKnight, was arrested after beating him up for passing gas in her face, as she lay sleeping on the couch.
The report says that the incident occurred in a Myrtle Beach residence, after McKnight came home drunk and probably thought it’d be a good idea if he mocked Cerney as she was sleeping. He probably thought he’d have a laugh and she’d never even know.
But Cerney woke up. The two got out in a fight that became very serious very fast so, to get away from the man, Cerney thought she’d best leave the house altogether until he sobered up and calmed down. She wasn’t fortunate enough to see her plan carried through, because he followed her out.
“Cerney told police that she left the home to get away from McKnight, but said that he followed her outside. As the two argued over the incident, Cerney said, the cursing McKnight approached her in a ‘threatening manner’,” The Smoking Gun writes.
Afraid of what he might do, she punched him in the face: she “struck him in the face approximately three times with a closed fist,” as the report puts it. He was taken to the hospital with a swollen right eye and received treatment. Cerney, on the other hand, was not injured but she was taken into police custody for her part in the altercation.
The report notes that “Cerney and McKnight were both issued citations for fighting,” after an eyewitness confirmed to police that the gas passing was the actual reason for which the fight started.
Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time that an “innocent” fart lands people in police custody.
In the animal world – funny fart facts incoming! – farts seem to be less “dangerous”: for instance, the gas passed by maggots has an effect similar to antibiotics. Herring use it to communicate with each other, but the Pogonophoran Worm, the Jellyfish, and the Coral and Sea Anemones don’t pass gas at all because they lack an anus.
Also, you can get in more serious trouble than McKnight did by passing gas in Cerney’s face if you do it in public in Malawi, where it’s considered an offense.