Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Another Bureaucratic Screw-Up...!

We would all like to think that our governing bodies (local and national) don't make stupid blunders, but they do.

What's worse, is when these mistakes are pointed out to them they take no action to correct the mistakes. That's what happened in this next article From Atlas Obscura.

Harvard Jail House

The two-cell building in Nebraska was briefly owned by a teenage boy and then a Hollywood dummy.


In 1943, the city of Harvard, Nebraska, accidentally sold its jail. To a 16-year-old boy. For $1.50.

Robert Pinckney, teenage son of the local physician, was looking for lots to lease for victory gardens when he noticed the town had accidentally included the jail in the list of properties for sale. When he told the city council about its mistake, they laughed at him. So he bought it.

Even after he was given the deed, the town of Harvard refused to admit its mistake and kept housing criminals in the small building’s two cells.

Pinckney hired a lawyer in an attempt to sue the city for owed rent. Harvard agreed to pay but added some rather superfluous requests, including removing the sidewalk from the property.

Pettiness aside, the city attempted to keep the embarrassing matter under wraps, but once Time magazine and other news outlets got wind of Pinckney’s story, Harvard’s mistake was national news. Pinckney offered to sell the jail back, but he was too young: the law said he couldn’t deed the property to anyone until he was 21 years old.

A recovering sailor in Los Angeles suggested the teen put the jail up for sale at a West Coast war bonds auction. Charlie McCarthy, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s famous dummy, bought the place for $10,000 in war bonds.

In the end, after the publicity died down, the dummy quietly gifted the jailhouse back to the city. It still stands in the same place today, a testament to bureaucratic error and teenage enterprise.


Guess it's a good thing that the kid tried to point out the city's error before he bought it. Made him look like the good guy for sure.

Coffee in the kitchen again. Rain is still here.

13 comments:

bigfoot said...

Interesting story. Thanks

linda m said...

That story is hilarious. Just goes to show you the depths of some people's stupidity. The "dummy" ends up owing the building is just too funny.

Momlady said...

Our local government is just as stupid when it comes to property. Story is too long to tell but it has lost money.

JO said...

I hope that kid ran for election in that town he was far smarter than what they had and look at the money he made for his $1.50 investment.

Cold here but the rain has moved out. I finally had my furnace fixed by a friend of my daughters, just in time to as we are going to get hit with a freeze Thur. night.

But your cozy kitchen is still the place to be

HermitJim said...

Hey Bigfoot...
Glad you liked it, my friend.
Thanks for stopping by today!


Hey Linda...
They only made things look worse when they tried to cover it all up.
Thanks for coming over today!


Hey Momlady...
I wonder how so many governing bodies can be so dumb when it comes to property. Scary!
Thanks for the visit today!


Hey Jo...
Certainly couldn't do any worse, could he. More power to the young folks like him.
Thanks, sweetie, for dropping by this morning!

Sixbears said...

Love it! The best part is that the kid pointed out the mistake before taking advantage of it.

Hermit's Baby Sis said...

Bubba, sounds like the "dummies" were the original owners.

Big hugs - get ready for a cold Christmas!

HermitJim said...

Hey Sixbears...
He pointed it out, they laughed at him, so he bought it! That will teach them!
Thanks for stopping by today!


Hey Sis...
That's what I was thinking!
Thanks for the visit this morning!

oldnorthstate said...

Charlie McCarthy had a decade-long "feud" with W.C. Fields. The cuttings remarks and insults entertained radio audiences for years. Would have been really funny if Charlie had locked up Fields for drunk in public or vagrancy in his jail. You would swear that Bergen and McCarthy were two different people, BTW.

Dizzy-Dick said...

I guess you had to be a dummy to own that jail. . .

HermitJim said...

Hey Oldnorthstate...
I didn't know about their feud. Thanks for the info.
Thanks also for coming by today!

HermitJim said...

Hey Dizzy...
looks that way, doesn't it? Except for the kid.
Thanks for the visit today!

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