Daryl Hill: Scammer or Scumbag

According to this story found on Fox News, a Tennessee man named Daryl Hill is claiming that a "new" Ipod that he bought for his daughter at Wal-Mart had some music and porn on it when he brought it home from the store and that his daughter was traumatized by it. Wal-Mart offered to give him a new one in exchange for that one, but he refused to hand it over, saying that he'd rather talk to some lawyers about a lawsuit. Apparently he thinks that somehow, he is entitled to a pile of cash even though neither he nor his daughter suffered any harm at all.

At best, Daryl Hill is a scumbag for even considering a lawsuit, IMHO. A lawsuit because his 10 year old kid saw or heard something that was probably no worse than stuff that she's probably seen and heard on TV or in videos? Come on.

And that's at best. At worst, there's the very real possibility that Hill is faking the whole thing, which might explain why he won't let Wal-Mart examine the machine. It's quite possible that he downloaded the stuff himself and either accidentally forgot to erase it before giving it to his kid or else he deliberately did it as part of a scheme to extort money from Wal-Mart. Perhaps he's afraid that they'll see that the porn and nasty music was downloaded after the date/time on his sales reciept.

But assuming that his story, fishy as it is, is legit, can anyone offer a reason why he should now be entitled to anything more than a new device or the money that he paid for it? It's lawsuits like this, where people demand tons of money even when they haven't suffered any harm, that cause businesses to raise prices, curtail opportunities, or just go out of business altogether. At any rate, we all pay more for many things because of the Daryl Hills of this world and the slimy lawyers that cater to them.

I hope that Wal-Mart holds out and investigates, and if it can be shown that Daryl Hill is lying, I hope that he goes to jail for a long time.