‘Tampon tossers’
REBECCA CRIMMINS, AN aspiring Australian model, and several co-workers were picking up McDonald’s from the drive-thru when Crimmins decided to play a joke on the attendant, earning her a criminal record.
After asking, “Oh, what’s this on my fries?” Crimmins took a wet tampon dipped in lime cordial mix and dabbed it on the employee’s hand. The victim, Luke Clareburt, ran to the sink to wash his hands, while Crimmins threw the tampon, splattering its contents on a fridge in the McDonald’s kitchen.
Crimmins, who admits to being drunk at the time of the incident, was sentenced by an Australian court to community service for common assault. She believes the incident ruined her career—Crimmins said she lost her modelling job and damaged her professional reputation.
“In my defence, the media have blown the whole ‘tampon’ incident way out of proportion,” wrote Crimmins on Facebook after the incident. “If it were not for a defamatory and untrue newspaper article that was written none of this exposure would have come about… Wowza the media really do twist the truth!!”
“[Crimmins] deserves everything she gets. She’s got no one to blame but herself,” said Clareburt to the Huffington Post about the incident.
Crimmins still believes the joke was all in good fun. She said all of her friends found the incident hilarious, and “[her] parents have been answering the phone saying, ‘Hello, tampon tossers.’”
—Andrew Ikeman
