Small Towns' Weirdest Controversies

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[CrankyNovelist]

The biggest controversy I'm aware of happened 10+ years ago. I only got details more recently since I was a child when it happened.

Two teachers, who were married, were found out to be swingers. They were both fired. Last year, I found out they had gotten divorced and the husband has a 24 year old girlfriend despite being in his 50s.

I personally don't have anything against swingers as long as they don't cross any lines. These two teachers were good and no one genuinely knew they were swingers before someone spilled the beans.

[digitalartemis]

During 2020 covid, our mayor made an announcement that banned anyone partying at bars. The very next day the mayor’s wife was found at a private party at local bar, and subsequently arrested

Current scandal includes that Starbucks told our town in the early 2000s that it would never build a location here because it wasn’t the right “demographic” (a large population of Black people and and an even larger population of low income families, including my own at the time). However, our town’s small businesses have actually boomed in recent years and besides our town being a popular tourist destination, there are four locally owned coffee shops, all super popular among everyone who lives here they are all thriving. Starbucks announced they would be building a location starting 2023. From what I heard most people are very angry about it, including myself. I wouldn’t be surprised though to see a long line when it opens though.

[bpfourlife]

So the local homeless veteran’s cat was lost so they all banded together to help find it…….why don’t they all band together to make sure their “local homeless vet” isn’t homeless anymore?

[FallenA-hrlb]

With the one about the sheep grazing on the village green, one thing to think on is it's free where as the other option would cost a lot

[stanford-nfjk]

I moved away years ago, but here’s mine from back then. The invasion of Iraq had just happened and there was an old lady who would ride her mobility scooter around the grocery store’s parking lot, blocking traffic while writing fake tickets and taping them on vehicles that lacked a yellow ribbon or bumper sticker that said “Support the Troops” for supposed ‘Lack of Patriotism’. Her son, who was mayor at the time, pressured the police as well as the store’s owner not to do anything about it. The issue has yet to be resolved when I moved away.

[mostdopecaptain]

You’d be surprised what goes on in small towns. I’ve lived in rural western Massachusetts before (my father was born and raised and still lives there so I visit frequently still) and we have news stories all the time of drug dealers like this one guy who was using a retired UPS truck for trafficking drugs through our small towns undetected for 10 years. Another dude in Holyoke had a retired fire station turned warehouse turned penthouse with luxury sports cars, exotic animals and like 500k in cash. Murders, people going missing, the body of a local man who worked at the local Burger King at the time his body was found in a field burnt to a crisp. A dude with schizophrenia went off the rails and thought people were after him and boobytrapped his room and starved to death, and when cops tried to bust in arrows were shot off almost injuring officers. This one in particular I saw with my own to eyes, kid came into my work (gas station) flipped out cuz I wouldn’t sell tobacco to him, he was 17. He then came behind the counter when I was trying to cash out another customer, he put me in a chokehold but I quickly rammed him into the lottery wall behind me, he left and the staties showed up right as he walked outside, it looked like a GTA 5 lobby, cops tasing and yelling at him and his accomplice, at one point he got in his dads gfs car that he stole and used it to hit an officer before finally being arrested. A few years later he broke into an old ladies house (she was 80 something at the time) and she stabbed him in the stomach😂😂 Most recently a guy I used to work with was murdered and the locals suspect it was his baby mothers new boyfriend that was the murderer. this is all stuff that’s happened around Massachusetts. Always something fun going on!

[phillydterminaldisease]

17:56 not even a skate park? That’s damn shame

[finchborat]

Mine has had quite a few. We're notorious for drama and false rumors.

Last month, one of the golf courses enacted a policy where kids under 12 weren't allowed unless they were playing. That caused uproar and the policy was reversed.

Just before that, there was a false rumor about potential gang violence. It came about immediately following some high school students being sent to the hospital after having fentanyl in their systems and a 16 yr old getting shot and killed. According to the rumor, rivals gangs were to come and "paint the town red, " with everything happening around the town square. Some local businesses closed for the weekend, but it was all for not.

[D.LeeFrey]

The one at 11:58 sounds like most of the small cities surrounding Lancaster (Smoketown, Bird-In-Hand, Gap, Strasburg, Ronks).

[henrikhyrup]

This happened some years ago, but it's both insane and hilarious:
A homeowner was told by the local municipality that he would be fined, as some of the stones around the fireplace in his back yard are taller than they are wide. This would "create unfortunate precedents for other fireplaces in the area" and this kind of disorder simply wouldn't be accepted. It was in the local news, papers wrote about it and such.

[cdarbo]

My city has this one guy most of us hate. He has a bunch of stickers on his truck saying not to ride his ass ( in his mind riding his ass is less then 2 car lengths), goes 20 in the 40, if you get to close to his bumper he threatens you and swervs and break checks. He has pulled a gun on people a few times for honking at him or going around him ( one has it on video). He is a crazy old man but a forth of the town tries to defend him. They say he's like this cause he has ptsd from a crash, that he's just a old man, that the gun is never loaded. That the people that post videos of him are just mean stalkers ganging up on a grandpa. He has gotten out of his truck and banged on my window cause I was half a car length away at a red light, I'm hoping the cops revoke his license soon.

[benjaminroberson]

So my small city decided to change the city's seal/logo about a year ago. A survey went out and asked what people thought were important to them but it didn't mention it was to redesign the logo. Six months later they unveiled a new city logo and everyone was immediately up in arms over the sudden change. The old logo was a masterpiece (if not a bit overdetailed) that had the signature Fox Theater, an oak tree, rolling farms and mountains behind, which was flanked by fruit on either side and the city's name above. The "new" logo was designed by someone from the Los Angeles area and was stripped of all character and minimal color that made it look like something that belonged in a coloring book for toddlers. The "artist" was paid a ridiculous amount for this logo that I could probably have thrown together in AutoCAD in maybe 4 hours 8 tops. The city council then held a competition for local artists to redesign it and the four finalists were so much better, of course the simplest one was chosen. I understand why they wanted to do away with the old logo as I'm sure it was expensive to put on stationary due to the detail and multiple colors, but the way in which it was changed left many with sour feelings.

[evathecat]

As far as I know, there are no controversies in my city. Everyone on my street lives around 0.2 miles away from each other and the population is around 320. Its very peaceful.

[Account-kvjc]

Two teachers during my highschool years were arrested for extortion, stalking/ harassment. Both were cheating on their spouse.


Another teacher was investigated and fired for being a pedophile and owning cp. He was the girls' volleyball, soccer, rugby, and track coach, taught math & business.

Two cops were caught and publicly shamed for cheating on their wives together with a 3rd party. One was a licensed marriage counselor.

[ferretman]

The last one is stupid. Imagine calling people Karen’s for being against putting literal Chemicals in the water supply

[emberfist]

I would say about the roundabout stories sometimes they are a pain and not needed. More importantly they need to be maintained like everything else. A roundabout in the country I live in is a patch of grass and the government allows weeds to grow on. In the next county you have more roundabouts, but they are properly landscaped and look nice. I think this might be because the people in my country are either embezzling funds or tightwads in general given they boarded up all the windows in the elementary school I went to to save on heating costs but removed for each class room because the teachers found it claustrophobic.

[gannicusfinch]

Back in the day, the nativity scene at the local Lutheran church was vandalized around Christmas time. There was a write-up in the local paper with the pastor expressing his disappointment and hoping the perpetrators "got right with God." Within days of the paper coming out, a group of Catholic teenage boys came forward and confessed. The pastor put them to work on snow removal, odd jobs, etc., until they worked off the cost of a new nativity set. It ended up turning into a feel-good, lesson learned story of owning up to your wrongdoings and two rival churches coming together.

[EvilPaladin]

This video almost makes me want to find my city's Facebook page, but that would require me to get on Facebook.

[sturmovik]

1:05 You stand inside at the counter. Because there isn't a drive-through.

[ILoveCanada]

*The veterans cat story, wholesome I hope they find the kitty!*