If there's a Woody Guthrie song out there about a sad traveling hard-lucked carnie, it's more than likely about this guy. His name is Frank Feikema. He was busted for selling a stuffed animal to an undercover fair cop at the Oklahoma State Fair in Tulsa for $40. Add that to the ever growing list of Oklahoma "WTF Laws."
Via News 9:
A Tulsa State Fair worker was arrested for fraud after handing over a Hello Kitty doll to a Tulsa County Sheriff's deputy for $40. Frank Feikema of Houston was booked on a complaint of violating the carnival fraud act.
Feikema, 65, was operating a booth where fairgoers pay to throw darts and pop balloons, according to an arrest report. A deputy approached the midway booth at 9:30 Saturday night, asking Feikema how much it would cost to win the largest prize.
"The rules state that the participant must win a certain number of each size prize to trade up for a larger prize," the deputy said in his report. "You continue to trade up until the largest prize is won."
Feikema reportedly told the deputy that for $40, he could pop one balloon and have whatever prize he desired.
"I took a dart, popped a balloon on the first try, handed him $40 and asked for one of the largest prizes," the deputy said. "He handed me the Hello Kitty that I asked for and I walked away."
Tulsa County Assessor Ken Yazel and two reserve deputies arrested Feikema about five minutes later, according to the arrest report. Feikema, 65, was taken into custody.
Geeze, doesn't it kind of feel like they're picking on this guy? He looks like he should be having a Miller High Life with your uncle who lives in Midwest City. He shouldn't be in jail for violating the Carnival Fraud Act.
I've never read that law, but I would think the point of it is to protect consumers from getting screwed over by shady game operators, and not the other way around. Who cares if some carnie sells a toy or not? In Frank's mind, he was probably thinking "Hey, I get $40-bucks and this guy will probably be laid by his girlfriend tonight. What a win-win!" That has to be some sort of entrapment, right? Instead of wasting their time on this guy, why don't they go after those warped basketball rims that Kendrick Perkins probably practices on.
Anyway, since we're on the topic of the state fair, I guess I should inform you that we're posting the semi-finals of our 2013 State Fair Photo Contest tomorrow. I've been going through the pics all weekend. We received approximately 200 or so submissions. From that 200, we have to trim the list down to 20. Outside of ranking the 20 hottest women in the OKC media, it's probably the most stressful and challenging thing I do on this site. Sucks to be me, huh?
