Nov 17 2006 - AFP
An 80-year-old New York cemetery worker has been charged with using a rake as an offensive weapon after allegedly beating a man who caught him urinating on a relative's grave, prosecutors said.
The full details of the alleged incident were unclear, but according to the New York Post, Itomor Khaimov, 28, was walking his dog in the cemetery when he spotted the 80-year-old relieving himself in a vase on his grandmother's grave.
When Khaimov asked the man what he was doing, he replied: "I'm urinating. ... I'm an old man, I can't hold it," the report said.
As Khaimov confronted him, the man swung at him with the rake, hitting him on the head and causing a mild concussion, the report added.
Khaimov said he visited the grave of his grandmother, who was born in Russia and died in 2001, every Sunday.
The cemetery worker, James Scott, has been charged with second-degree assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon -- the rake -- and is due to appear in court in January, prosecutors said.
He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Mankind has created spectacular works of art, engineered incredibly tall buildings, designed impressive supercomputers, lived in outerspace, discovered cures for nasty diseases. As a whole, nothing can compare to human intelligence, but sometimes, humans need to control urges.
US cemetery worker, 80, charged over grave-rage incident