About a day ago, at a drive-in kinda far away…
Sat May 21, 2005 13:37 (UTC -5)Yesterday I went with my friend Andrew to see Star Wars: Episode III at a drive-in theater. Since it was for his birthday, he invited some other people too. I’d never been to a drive-in, so it was interesting. This particular one is at the Swap Shop, a local flea market/circus/drive-in. Luckily, we were early and got a good spot near the front where we could sit outside the car in lawn chairs. As for the movie, I can’t really say how good it was because I’m not really a Star Wars fan. The effects were good, the acting was mostly good, and that’s the extent of my review.
We had to wait a long time to get our tickets, but it had nothing to do with the immense, record-breaking popularity of the movie in question. There were police cars near the ticket booths and we had to wait. Someone in a tie was going around to the many, many cars in line saying that they might not open the theater. So we had some pizza while waiting in line and eventually, the cops left and they started letting cars in. This morning the Sun-Sentinel reported what had happened.
Swap Shop owner detained after confrontation
Broward Sheriff’s deputies used a Taser to subdue one of the county’s political and economic power brokers Friday after he barricaded himself in his office then rushed at them “in a threatening manner,” a sheriff’s spokesman said.
Even after a jolt of 50,000 volts, Preston Henn, 74, continued to struggle as he was led out of the Swap Shop and forced into a squad car. Inside, he kicked out the car’s backseat window after screaming for his sons to help him.
Henn’s son, Byron, said his father’s behavior might have been caused by changing prescription medication. He did not say what the medication was for.
Deputies went to the Swap Shop twice on Friday to try to settle a conflict between Henn and one of his vendors. At one point, Henn had to be handcuffed because he began acting “irrationally,” said sheriff’s spokesman Hugh Graf. When he appeared to calm down 45 minutes later, deputies removed the handcuffs. Henn surprised them by racing to a golf cart, driving to his office, and barricading himself inside.
Henn, who owns the Swap Shop, was taken to Plantation General Hospital under the state’s Baker Act following the bizarre confrontation with deputies. The Baker Act requires him to be hospitalized involuntarily for 72 hours for psychiatric treatment.
“I can’t talk about his medical condition, but there’s something seriously wrong, obviously,” said his lawyer, William Scherer. “This is not normal behavior for Preston Henn.”
Graf said he does not expect Henn to face criminal charges.
Henn’s influence stretches from South Florida to Tallahassee, and the Republican has cultivated friendships on both sides of the aisle. A longtime ally of Democrat Lori Parrish, the former County Commissioner who is now Broward’s property appraiser, and Republican Tom Feeney, speaker of the state House of Representatives, Henn is known for his colorful style, Stetson hat and amusing television and radio commercials.
He’s a member of the State Fair Board and the county’s Tourism Development Council, and he promotes the Swap Shop as the second most popular tourist attraction in the state (behind Disney World), with a drive-in movie theater, a circus that angers animal rights activists, and acres of merchandise for sale daily.
Originally from North Carolina, Henn came to South Florida in the 1960s and built up the Swap Shop from the drive-in theater that still sits on the property, his lawyer said.
“Swap shops and flea markets were great things to do with your drive-in movie theater when you’re not showing movies,” Scherer said.
Joel Leibovitch, a vendor with seven kiosks at the Swap Shop, said troubles began Friday morning when Henn showed up without warning to evict him.
Leibovich said Henn and several employees ransacked the kiosks, bagging up chicken, ice cream and sodas and tossing them in the parking lot. Deputies responded after receiving more than a dozen phone calls about the disturbance, according to Graf.
During the earlier altercation, Leibovitch said Henn shoved him and screamed at him.
Things settled down, deputies left and Leibovitch went to the hospital then called his lawyer. When he returned later Friday afternoon, his belongings had been returned to his kiosks in piles on the floor.
Deputies returned to deal with the issue, leading to the confrontation with Henn.
For nearly 20 minutes while he was in his office, Henn could be heard ordering his security staff around by radio. He wanted to talk to his son, and he wanted to know if he’d left his cell phone and radio on the golf cart.
At one point he became frustrated and screamed: “Does anyone hear this radio?”
Moments later, Henn rushed out of his office door, Graf said. He was shocked with a Taser and again handcuffed. As deputies lead him down the stairs to the squad car, Henn again became agitated.
As he struggled with deputies he screamed to another son, “Get me out of here, Jeff.”
“I can’t help you now,” Jeff Henn responded.
Like many normal people, I hate junk mail. “What?” you ask in startled disbelief. “You get junk mail? But you have no credit!” I know, I say. It mostly stems from small donations to charitable organizations (we’re talking a few dollars cash). The worst mistake I ever made was to put a return address label on those envelopes. Today I saw a junk mail envelope ripe for the ripping. I usually just rip them up and throw them away, but today I thought I’d be creative.
Most of us have heard of people who, in a fit of rage, tie a brick to a Business Reply Mail envelope and send it back to the junk mailer, who has to pay the postage on it. Probably to prevent occurrences such as this, it’s illegal to use the envelope as a label on an object that is to be mailed. However, it’s apparently okay to put anything (legal) into the envelope as long as it’s properly sealed.
Anyway, this bit of junk mail was pretty thick, so I stuffed the contents (including the original envelope) into the Business Reply Mail envelope. I cut out any parts referring to my name and address, so they wouldn’t know who did it (not the best way to get rid of junk mail because they won’t know it’s you, but it should tick ‘em off). For some extra bulk, I added some scrap paper that was lying around and would have been thrown away anyway. One of the papers had “theworldofstuff.com” printed on it. That gave me an idea.
In the future, I’ll make a mock advertisement for The World of Stuff to put in Business Reply Mail envelopes. I’d pull of the whole junk mail thing, like addressing it to the name of the company (misspelled, of course) “or Current Resident.” Then they’d see how it feels to get junk mail.
A suggestion here states that a good way to add some extra cost is to cram some non-flat stuff into the envelope so that it can’t be machine-sorted. They’ll supposedly tack on a fee for that. I should have tried that, but I don’t know what I could have put in. Maybe if I just crumbled some paper into a ball, that would probably do it. But since an envelope only holds so much, I’ll have to stock up on bars of lead.
See also Operation: Mailback for an attempt at organizing a campaign of, well, mailing back junk mail.
As a side note, my dad saw me stuffing the envelope this morning and told me not to “channel negative energy” into mailing back junk mail. He probably thinks it’s futile. Well, it is, but it makes me feel better.
4 comments
#1 by Common-tater: Wed Oct 05, 2005 01:15 (UTC -5)
Why make the poor men and women of the postal service work twice as hard or more?!? You seriously should channel some of that energy into something more positive – get off those lists, make it so they don’t send you stuff to begin with, attack the problem not the symptom. ;)
#2 by Sudhanuj: Thu May 18, 2006 06:28 (UTC -5)
Hello ,
I am from new delhi , india . We have a drive-in in mumbai , but not a
single one in new delhi .
To search for a drive-in in my city of which I might not be knowing , I
spent some time in surfing over the net for a drive-in in my city .
Although , I did not find any drive-ins’s located in new delhi . but I
sure did find a new approach for drive-ins’s about which i read at
http://www.mobmov.org .
They are already present in the usa , canada and australia . Other
upcoming venues are in germany , brazil , indonesia and other places .
I have written to them showing my desire for starting a delhi chapter
and they have response was very encouraging .
The best part about them is they are free and they inform us about the
shows held every fortnight .
Hope you all enjoy the experince , as I am waiting to start my own
drive-in chapter .
Happy mobbing .
Sudhanuj
http://www.mobmov.org/
#3 by Tony: Wed Jan 21, 2009 17:01 (UTC -5)
I love Tom Feeney in those radio commercials.
#4 by Steve Feeney: Sun Dec 20, 2009 16:24 (UTC -5)
My name is Feeney too. I am if the Republican Tom Feeney, speaker of the state House of Representatives, is in our family tree. Knowing a few of our other relatives I would not be surprised.