Arrest Story Still Making the Rounds

A deaf man is arrested for what police thought were obscene gestures aimed at them, but the man says he was only trying to tell them he was deaf. Sounds pretty disturbing, right?  The UK's Daily Mail has published the article in its online edition here. The problem is that this story from Sunderland, England happened more than a decade ago--a fact not mentioned in the article. In 2002, Shaun Phuprate was charged with being drunk and disorderly, along with his brother who tried to intervene. Local magistrates later threw the case out. The Daily Mail itself ran the article in 2002 which you can see here.