Did you ever do something really stupid when you were a little kid?  Kids do stupid things, I guess.  I know I did a few unbelievable things before I started kindergarten (and then a few thousand stupids things since then).  I really hated family gatherings, or when I'd bring someone new home, only to suffer through the embarassment of hearing the perenial story that began, "Remember when you did (something stupid)?"  I think the only saving grace is that the stories were not published in the newspaper.

A weird little news story has made the rounds on local TV stations in Florida recently.  It all started with a 3½ year old boy being removed from a foster home by the Florida Department of Children and Families and a police report by the local county sheriff in north Florida, near Jacksonville.

The headline I first saw by the time this story made it down to central Florida was "Man Accused Of Shocking Toddler During Potty Training," which sounded horrible enough for me to want to read the article.  Then I googled the horrible man's name in the article to see if there were any earlier news articles written about this story, with more details.  I quickly found the local story, here.

Now, the horrible man's name is Paul Trotman, and he's an electrician.  I only continue to call him horrible because he has been arrested on a charge of aggravated child abuse.

This news article has his mugshot and a video.  Just click on the face that looks like Gimli from Lord of the Rings to see the TV news video clip.  If you read the whole article, you can almost understand why Mr. Trotman did what he did and how it might have made some weird sense for him to do it, though.

The reason I say this goes back to the idea of stupid kid stories.  Here's a direct quote from the news that will follow this little kid around until he's thirty or forty years old and why they'll call him Sparky at his office job:

Trotman, an electrician employed at the Kings Bay Naval Station, admitted using a transformer putting out 56 volts to shock the boy who had been intentionally urinating on electrical devices to see them spark.

Woo Hoo! Now you know why your office printer/copier is always broken.