The Artificial Leg Robbery

It's 45 years since the best ever account of an attempted crime. From the Edinburgh Evening News, 18 August 1978. While they were waiting at a bus stop in Clermiston, Mr and Mrs Daniel Thirsty were threatened by Mr Robert Clear. 'He demanded that I give him my wife's purse,' said Mr Thirsty. 'Telling him that the purse was in her basket, I bent down, put my hands up her skirt, detached her artificial leg and hit him over the head with it. It was not my intention to do anything more than frighten him off, but unhappily for us all, he died.'

A screenshot shares a newspaper account of a couple attacked at a bus stop. The husband distracts the robber, removes his wife's artificial leg, and uses it as a weapon, accidentally killing him. The absurdly formal wording and bizarre self-defense story make it a reaction meme for an unbelievable or unexpectedly chaotic anecdote.

• @threedotssavetogallery / 3648 2023-09-27