Man arrested for not returning rented 'Freddy Got Fingered' video from 2002

A man from Concord, North Carolina, was arrested for failing to return a 2002 VHS rental movie, “Freddy Got Fingered.” James Meyers is charged with failure to return rental property, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $200. The rental store in Kannapolis, J&J’s Video, has since closed, but Meyers was still given an April 27 court date for failing to return the comedy about a cartoonist returning home to live with his parents.



Meyers said he was driving his daughter to school on Concord Parkway on Tuesday morning when a Concord police officer pulled him over for a tail-light that was out. Meyers said the officer ran his license and approximately 25 minutes later asked him to step out of the vehicle. “The officer said, 'I don’t know how to tell you this but there’s a warrant out for your arrest from 2002. Apparently you rented the movie "Freddy Got Fingered" and never returned it.'

“I thought he was joking,” said Meyers. Meyers said the officers were very polite and professional. They let him take his daughter to school and go to work as long as he promised to turn himself into the police department later that day. Meyers said he thought everything would get straightened out at the department. He was surprised when officers arrested him and then took him to the magistrate’s office. “For the first time I got put in handcuffs,” said Meyers.



Meyers said he vaguely remembers renting the particular movie from the family-owned video store in Kannapolis. Meyers now hopes that the charges are dismissed. He added that he had been pulled over since the warrant was issued in 2002, but had never heard about the lost tape. “They’re not focusing on the crimes I think they should be focusing on,” said Meyers. “That hour the cops sat out there with me, the hour and a half I was down in the magistrate's office could have been spent somewhere else.”

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