A very off-topic, yet very, very, very good story. A 3 minute read.

This story's discussion might yield some self-righteousness (though not meant offensively, instead meant rather whimsically, the individuals involved might lead some to believe that this tale is of questionable content) and/or a series of bickerings about whether or not the following is true. I hope not, but I suppose that is the nature of really, really, really wanting to share a tale of hilarious improbability. Perhaps, it is the best true story being told in all of the United States (or in all of North America) today, this week (?), this month (?!). It's good. And once more: It's true (yes, it really is). Without further ado... Allison is another M.D./Ph.D. student in my year in Hershey, PA. She's from Colorado, where her family still lives. Her mom is a nurse and--naturally--has other nurse friends. One of her friends, whose name I didn't catch, has a younger brother with Down's Syndrome. He's highly functional; in fact, he is able to live on his own; he performs regular chores and requires minimal aid. He's relatively healthy, then. That's the story's background. So 3 weeks ago, this woman (Allison's mom's friend) gets a call while at work from her brother. "Sis, sis! You gotta come over here. I caught a real, live troll! You have to see him. Come over, come over!" The sister was at work, though, so she explained she couldn't come over right away. Even still, she promised to come over within 2-3 days. She let her brother know she was very interested yet also very busy. He said he understood; she said goodbye and went back to work. 3 days later, the sister made good on her promise. She knocked on her brother's apartment door. Suddenly, there was a lot of commotion on the other side of the door. And, only after 2 minutes did her brother spin the deadbolt and pull the door inward to welcome his older sister. She took immediate notice of what had just happened. The apartment was in disarray, with all of its furniture pushed into that corner of the room--near the front door. The brother--who was typically very particular and neat--had just finished taking apart a barricade made of a couch, dining room table, and chairs. Recognizing that the brother's phone call was odd and concerning, the sister decided to ignore the additionally concerning barricade for now. She asked the obvious question: "So, where's this real, live troll I've heard so much about?" He gladly jumped to tell her he was in his bedroom upstairs and led her in that direction. As they reached the stairtop, the sister noticed another barricade. This time, the brother's bedroom was blocked off. They moved that huddle of furniture and pushed the door forward. The third barricade, then, wasn't difficult to spot. The younger brother's closet had been sectioned off, as well. Noticeably, a hole had been punched into the wood slats at the top of the closet, too. The brother explained that the troll was 'in there'. He'd been feeding the troll through the hole for the last three days--anxiously waiting for his sister to visit. So, the two of them moved that furniture, too, and opened the closet door. Inside? A midget, to speak pejoratively. The younger brother had trapped a Little Person inside his closet, and the sister was visibly horrified--worried this meant her brother was liable for criminal and clinical punishment. No sooner than she thought those things did the "troll" begin to explain that he was a Jehovah's Witness. He had been walking door-to-door until he eventually landed upon the front door of her brother's apartment. More quickly than the Little Person could have anticipated, the brother--having never before seen a Little Person and believing his new friend to be a "real, live troll"--reached out, grabbed the Jehovah's Witness, and brought him inside. He was trapped. I've gathered that this was completely unexpected. Though the story's details acquire some opacity from here on, we can infer from the excessive barricading that a sizable struggle ensued. Perhaps, the Little Person even managed to get away a few times to the front door before (necessitating a barricade there and elsewhere), eventually, losing his will to fight. No matter the story, there was one indisputable result: The Jehova's Witness laid in a foreign closet for roughly 72 hours. In the end, the Jehovah's Witness promised not to press charges; he explained that would infringe on his faith (though it's unclear to me whether it's because the young man had Down's Syndrome or whether it's because it's against his faith to 'press charges', generally). The Jehovah's Witness merely explained he was happy to be free. And he left. That's the end of the story. "And he left." I hope you liked it as much as I did, though I admit that I only like it for its truth and improbability. I typically don't like stories like these because I find their intention's offensive (maybe even malevolent), but--this one being true, and the main character's intentions being wholly innocent (ditto apropos the intentions of this particular storyteller's tellings, in his opinion)--I must admit that I do like it a lot. Negbang as you wish if you found yourself hating every moment of this tale, ~Dave