Runaway Bride Mows Lawn of Government Building (Community Service)

[JohnLocke]

Runaway Bride Mows Lawn of Government Building to Work off Community Service
By Daniel Yee -- Associated Press
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
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LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.-- Instead of cutting out of town, runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is cutting lawns.
Wearing an orange community service vest and a baseball cap with the slogan "Life is good," Wilbanks did part of her court-ordered community service Tuesday for lying to police after she ran off days before her wedding.
"I'm doing well. ... I'm getting there," a sweating Wilbanks told a throng of reporters and photographers after her mower died out in the tall, wet grass. "I need to get back to work. I don't want to get into trouble."
But her mower kept sputtering out, prompting her to repeatedly yank on the pull cord to get it started again. After the eighth time, she let out a huge sigh.
In all, Wilbanks was ordered to do 120 hours of service, and she has already completed 24 by scrubbing toilets in probation offices, picking up trash and washing public vehicles.
"She's a hard worker. She didn't take advantage of anything. She did more work than most people," said 17-year-old Michael Powell, who has cleaned bathrooms and offices with Wilbanks while working off his own sentence of 80 hours of community service for an offense he declined to disclose.
When he first met Wilbanks, Powell was one of the few who had no idea who she was.
"I said 'Whoa, what's a girl like you having to do 120 hours of community service?' She said, 'I told a lie."
"I said, 'It must have been a pretty big lie,' and she laughed, saying 'Haven't you heard of the runaway bride?'"
Wilbanks, 32, disappeared four days before her scheduled wedding in April with 600 invited guests. Hundreds of police officers and volunteers - including members of the wedding party - searched for her for three days.
(...)
The nearby city of Duluth, where Wilbanks had lived with her fiance, spent nearly $43,000 to search for her; Wilbanks has repaid $13,249.
Wilbanks has been undergoing mental health treatment, with the support of Mason, who has stood by her despite being left at the altar. They still plan to get married, but they haven't announced a date.
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Read the rest here.

[Richardo]

1. Must we?

x(

[Xithras]

2. Does anybody actually care?!?!

I mowed my lawn last week...where was the friggin CNN film crew?

[jbane]

3. Anybody that reads a book or sees at TV movie about this bug-eyed kook...

is as big a looser as she is.

[Bluzmann57]

4. And in related "news"...

Natalee Holloway is still missing, Pope John Paul 2 is still dead...On and on it goes. What about Sheehan, what about the DSM? We may never know.

[rodeodance]

5. She "created a national issue" --is the way the media discribed this-

ignoring the fact the MEDIA CREATED the figure of the runnaway bribe. So silly.

[Claymore]

6. ...

What's strange is the landscaping crew asked for a new hoe and suddenly she showed up...thanks...I'm here all week...try the veal.

[jbane]

10. good one!

[Richardo]

11. Pfft!

:spray:

[Richardo]

12. Welcome to DU, Claymore

:toast:

[Catherine Vincent]

14. LOL!

I know, I shouldn't laugh but that was funny!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

7. "...Powell was one of the few who had no idea who she was."

Making him far luckier than the rest of us.

[Fridays Child]

8. Can't she just burn the grass to the proper length with her x-ray vision?

[CAcyclist]

13. Crystal Meth nt

[Kire]

9. I think more white women should do this (scam the media).

Even if they don't consciously trick Greta Van Susteren and her ilk, at least all of the so-called "rescuers" will be skeptical of the Natalee Holloways of the world.

I just heard an hour long show about the racial disparity in the media coverage of kidnappings. The Fairy Tale syndrome. How come these women are always white, blonde, rich, physically and mentally "well" (in the diagnostic sense), are due to be married in a week's time, and more.

Here's a great blog post that they pointed me to:

http://allspinzone.com/blog/index.php?catid=126&blogid=1

[cornermouse]

15. So we have reporters perched out watching a twit mow a lawn

and in the meantime the real news goes unnoticed because its too expensive and too hard to go look for it.

[paineinthearse]

16. Excuse my French, but.....

Who gives a fuck about this latest distraction?

[Catherine Vincent]

17. Can you believe they just showed this on our local news....

in Texas. :eyes: