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On May 6, 2024, a Facebook user posted a meme asking, "Friend: How did your first camping trip as a family go?" For the answer to the question, the meme featured a picture of a purported TV news report showing a woman's mug shot with the words, "Wife Stabs Husband with Squirrel."
Further online searches found countless reposts of the same image , including a Reddit post on the r/funny subreddit from July 14, 2014. The Reddit post revealed a larger version of the picture showing the news logo in the bottom-left corner belonged to Spectrum Bay News 9 in Tampa Bay, Florida. The name of the person who originally took the picture of a TV to capture the odd news headline was unclear.
Im not even mad, that was amazing.
by u/ihatethemaclab in funny
One Facebook user remarked in a repost of the image, "I kind of want to know the whole story."
The Bay News 9 TV broadcast picture contained some truth. However, the picture alone does not incorporate context possibly included in the original broadcast. According to Snopes' review of an incident report obtained from the North Charleston Police Department in South Carolina, the alleged stabbing occurred with a ceramic squirrel, not a live animal.
Fox Carolina Article
The alleged stabbing incident took place on Dec. 25, 2013, in North Charleston. Two days later, Fox Carolina was one of the first news outlets to report the story on its website. The station's website no longer hosts the article, but the Internet Archive Wayback Machine does:
A 41-year-old man was left bloodied early Christmas morning after his spouse attacked and stabbed him with a ceramic squirrel for not bringing home beer, according to an incident report.
Helen Ann Williams, 44, was arrested Wednesday and charged with criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature.
...
An incident report states officers arrived to find a man with a large amount of blood on his shirt due to a "large deep" laceration from his left shoulder to left chest area. He also had cuts on his face.
The victim told police he went to the store to get beer, but returned home because the store was closed.
The reports states Williams was mad the victim did not bring home beer. She then hit the victim over the head with a ceramic squirrel, and stabbed him in the chest with it.
Full Incident Report
The writer of the North Charleston police incident report redacted the name of the wife's common-law husband – the alleged victim:
On 12/25/2013, at approximately 12:22 a.m., Officer [Dominick] Coleman was dispatched to [redacted] Clifton Street in reference to a domestic. Upon my arrival, Officer Coleman was directed to [redacted] Clifton Street where the domestic was by [victim] banging on the door to his residence. Officer Coleman approached [victim] and asked him, "What was going on?" He stated that there was nothing going on. As [victim] was talking, Officer Coleman noticed a lot of blood on [his] face. Officer Coleman using his flashlight began to look at [victim's] face. Officer Coleman noticed a large laceration on [victim's] head as well as cuts on his face. Officer Coleman also noticed large amounts of blood on [victim's] shirt. When [victim] removed his shirt, Officer Coleman noticed a large, deep laceration starting from [victim's] left shoulder to his left chest area. Officer Coleman had dispatched to called EMS to the scene. Officer Coleman then secured the scene.
Officer Coleman then asked Ms. Williams what happened. She stated that nothing happened and that he just fell and cut himself. Officer Coleman asked Ms. Williams, "Why is there large amounts of blood on your hand as well as your clothes?" She stated that it was not [redacted] blood and that the blood had been there.
Officer Coleman went back to [victim] and asked him to be truthful about what happened. [Victim] stated that he walked to the store earlier to get beer for him and Ms. Williams. He stated that he came home because the store was closed. He stated that he tried to fix a sandwich and she got mad that he did not have the beer and took a ceramic squirrel and hit him over the head and then stabbed him over his shoulder and chest with it. He stated that he ran across the street to [redacted] Clifton and his neighbor called 911.
Officer Coleman had pictures taken of [victim] and of the area where it took place. Ms. Williams was placed under arrest for [criminal domestic violence] and transported to the jail for booking procedures. [Victim] was transported to the hospital for medical treatment.
"The condition of the squirrel wasn't reported," NBC News reported in a separate article on Dec. 27.
We contacted Bay News 9 via a direct message on X to ask questions about this story. This article will be updated if we receive further details.
Sources:
Bleier, Evan. "Woman Stabs Husband with Ceramic Squirrel for Coming Home with No Beer [VIDEO] - UPI.com." UPI.Com , 30 Dec. 2013, https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2013/12/30/Woman-stabs-husband-with-squirrel-over-Christmas-without-beer/7321388412494/ .
"Bond Denied for Woman Charged in Northwoods Hit & Run." WCIV , 15 Feb. 2017, https://abcnews4.com/news/crime-news/bond-denied-for-woman-charged-in-northwoods-hit-run .
Johnson, M. Alex. "SC Woman Charged with Stabbing Husband with a Ceramic Squirrel." NBC News , 28 Dec. 2013, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sc-woman-charged-stabbing-husband-ceramic-squirrel-flna2D11812410 .
News 2 Staff. "Wife Jailed after Stabbing Husband with Ceramic Squirrel." WCBD-TV , 27 Dec. 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20140102140234/https://www.counton2.com/story/24314595/north-charleston-woman-jailed-after-stabbing-husband-with-ceramic-squirrel .
Weiss, Philip. "Police: Woman Stabbed Man with Ceramic Squirrel." Fox Carolina via Internet Archive Wayback Machine , 27 Dec. 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20131229012943/https://www.foxcarolina.com/story/24313842/police-woman-stabbed-man-with-ceramic-squirrell/ .
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