If you just read that headline and said, “What the hell?” you’re in the same boat as us.
Mazen Dayem, a 36-year-old Staten Island man, who says he has a phobia of the Tasmanian Devil and is absolutely scared of it, is actually accusing his father-in-law of poking fun at his phobia and menacing him with a bushy toupee that looks like the Looney Tunes character. Yeah, this is a real story.
Want to know how real? Well the father-in-law, 62-year-old supermarket mogul Yunes Doleh, was actually arrested last month on felony charges for violating a restraining order by waving his toupee at Dayem during a funeral.
Man afraid of Tasmanian Devil sues father-in-law for wearing bushy toupee https://t.co/qLfkEGXg7V pic.twitter.com/BFsJF2up9g
— New York Post (@nypost) December 21, 2017
Here’s what Dayem told the NY Post:
“He walked in as I was already there. He removed his wig, made hand gestures. It’s just a very large fear of mine, his damn wig. Him and his hair reminds me of the Tasmanian Devil hair. I truly and genuinely have a large fear of wigs now. It’s a genuine fear. I have nightmares.”
Dayem’s attorney, Robert Garson, confirmed his client’s unusual phobia by comparing the hairpiece to an actual animal. “Mazen is very scared of this guy who looks like he has a rabid badger on his head. It troubles him greatly,” Garson said.
Doleh faces charges of criminal contempt and aggravated harassment for the Nov. 5 incident. Two months earlier, Dayem got a restraining order following a fracas at a Staten Island eatery in which Doleh allegedly kicked Dayem’s SUV.
Doleh was charged with criminal mischief in Staten Island County court.
He then sued his son-in-law for defamation after photos of his arrest from the parking-lot incident surfaced on social media — charges Garson called baseless.
I think it’s probably clear this family is completely bonkers. On one side you have a dude who claims to be scared of a cartoon character, but it’s obvious he just wants cash from his wealthy father-in-law. And on the other hand you have a rich dude who can’t afford a proper wig.
