[IronJack]

What did he hope to gain with this stunt? Sympathy?

[Red Badger]

Most likely. Munchhausen’s Syndrome................

[Fresh Wind]

What did he hope to gain with this stunt? Sympathy?

Well, he did get a free meal.

[Delta 21]

Subdued JackBoot (a.k.a. ~ Nazi) that was gonna ‘show them’ for dissing him in some meaningless way.

I’m believing this until I’m proven wrong.

[RoosterRedux]

I'll bet a lot of these types of stories start out by someone telling a whopper over a beer with his buds after work.

Before social media, these kinds of stories would just die. But now they get spread around by friends at work and then develop to the point at which the story gets out of control. A long time ago, the story might reach the boss, who would inquire about it and learn it was baloney.

But now, before the boss can kill it, the story makes the leap to Twitter and Facebook and--boom--it is telegraphed around the world.