Some pretty terrible things have taken place in movie theaters over the years. However, it's possible that nothing quite as disgusting has ever taken place as a man urinating on other patrons during a film. That's exactly what happened recently in a town in Illinois when a 20-year-old man started urinating on the people in front of him in the theater during a late-night screening. This has resulted in an arrest warrant being issued for the man on a pair of felony charges.
The incident took place at the AMC Showplace in New Lennox, Illinois. On January 14, Samuel Vigil allegedly drove from his home in Joliet to the town of New Lennox to catch a movie. At some point during the film, Vigil apparently stood up and began to urinate on the people in front of him in the theater, specifically, two women, according to New Lennox Patch. Police were called to the scene, where Vigil was arrested before being released on bond.
However, the story is not quite over yet, because the State's Attorney has now filed a pair of aggravated battery charges against Samuel Vigil for the incident. He now has 30 days to surrender himself to authorities.
When we hear about incidents where crimes take place inside movie theaters between patrons, it's frequently over something inconsequential, like somebody talking during a movie, that gets out of hand. In this case, if there was any sort of inciting incident that led to the urination, it's not public knowledge. I'm not sure if it would be better or worse to know if something happened that led this person to decide that peeing on people was an appropriate response, or if he just decided it would be something worth doing independently. It's not clear if the alleged battery was aimed specifically at the women or just at whoever happened to be seated in front of him.
It's also not mentioned what movie was being seen at the time. While January isn't usually a popular month for movies, nothing really came out for which this was an appropriate response. Of course, maybe it was the opposite problem. Perhaps the film was so good that the gentlemen couldn't tear himself away to go use a toilet and, in the dark, didn't realize there were people in front of him. Nevermind, that doesn't actually make any of this any better.
Unfortunately, it's worth saying that at least this was the worst thing that happened. We've seen altercations in movie theaters all too often turn violent, so at least nobody was seriously hurt, even if they had to deal with a fairly disgusting incident.
