Missing iPod Case Gets Dumb and Dumber

By Scott Smith in News on Oct 4, 2006 6:46PM

In a story that gets more ridiculous the longer it goes on, the two suburban families embroiled in a dispute over a missing iPod will settle their differences in small claims court and not in front of a judge who takes breaks for commercials.

Last June, Shannon Derrik loaned her iPod to Stephanie Eick, who returned it by leaving it on her desk when Shannon wasn’t around. Shannon says when she returned to her desk, it wasn’t there. Stephanie’s father now says that she placed the iPod in Shannon’s purse while Shannon was around then Shannon left the room, which is when the iPod was stolen. Other students apparently witnessed this, but haven’t stepped forward with any other info about the missing iPod.

An anonymous donor offered Shannon a new iPod, but her mom said that wouldn’t settle the matter of right and wrong. Shannon’s mom Melanie McCarthy said she wanted to resolve this on "Judge Judy" because dealing with the dispute in the local court system would require her to take more time off of work. As opposed to flying out to California to appear on "Judge Judy," which as everyone knows takes place in The Phantom Zone where Earth time has no meaning.

Though McCarthy favored "Judge Judy" (with the iron-clad argument that “she's more professional”) the Eicks favored "Judge Mathis," who tapes his show locally, as it didn’t make sense to travel all that way “to settle a dispute that could be resolved locally in a couple hours.” McCarthy isn’t down with that so it’s back to DuPage County court. In a post on his family's blog, Stephanie’s father said: “I’m bummed as I really wanted to be on the Judge Mathis TV Show…I missed my opportunity to get limoed into the city and be paid to appear.”

Yes, it’s a shame this has gone on so long. Wonder why that is.