Sunday, April 23, 2006

Strange Work Habits

Wow, yesterday I got a record number of hits at my site because of the Washington Post article. I was secretly hoping for a bazillion hits, but my friend told me that's pretty unrealistic because 1) most people read the WaPo in paper form, not online; and 2) a "bazillion" is not even a real number.

Anyway, I bet some of you thought that I was kidding about doing electrical work in my boxer shorts. Well, before you go off and call me a pervert for manipulating my wiring while in my skivvies, cheak out this guy in california. He was doing wiring in the nude...and the guy who hired him came home early and caught him....HA!
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Nude-Carpenter.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

April 21, 2006

Carpenter Who Works Naked Is Arrested

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:43 p.m.
ET

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff.
Percy Honniball, 50, was charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure this week for the October
incident.

He told officers he stripped before crawling under the client's house to do electrical work because he didn't want to soil his clothes, police said.

Honniball said Thursday that working au naturel gave him a better range of motion and that a skilled craftsman can work clothing -- and injury -- free.

''In certain situations such as demolitions where you are smashing rock you want to be clothed and protected because this rock can harm you,'' he said.

Honniball was caught working naked in Berkeley three times in the last six years and put on
probation for violating a city ordinance.

Honniball says he doesn't plan to do work in his birthday suit again.Police said he apologized to the startled homeowner, but was fired. The homeowner paid Honniball for the finished work, but deducted $200.

''He kept out that amount to change his locks,'' Oakland Police Officer Jesse Grant said.

4 comments:

Reya Mellicker said...

I used to live in the SF Bay Area, so this story doesn't surprise me. A friend of mine, living in the Mission, asked her remodelling contractor to psychically envision where she had put her keys. She said he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and said, "They're in a dish somewhere." And they were!

Some things I miss about the Bay Area, but psychic contractors or naked carpenters? Uhmmmm....don't miss that.

Bravo on the WaPo article!

Stef said...

That WaPo article is great! Congrats!

I guess the lesson is that you can really only do carpentry work in the full or semi-buff if you're not expecting anyone else to come in the door later!

John said...

What does it say about me that I wouldn't care if he did good work?

HomeImprovementNinja said...

reya, yeah nothing about Cali surprises me. I hear they think nothing of putting pineapple on a pizza (that would get you killed in NYC).

Stef, yeah, although I would worry about injuries...or death. If they find you dead and nekkid with a powertool, people will talk. I'm just sayin'.

John, I probably wouldn't care (much). I wouldn't have deducted money to change the locks, but I definitely would've deducted money to hire a cleaner to scrub the place from top to bottom. What if he sat on my couch nekkid? Ugh!