This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Call it the Fickle Finger of Fate. Or perhaps divine retribution.
The DePauw, the campus newspaper at DePauw University, reports that a driver paid for his decision to "flip the bird" at a pair of Mormon missionaries. Immediately after extending the universal digit of disdain, his northbound silver Honda Civic hit a curb, climbed the support cable of a power pole, launched into the air and landed on its top in Greencastle, Ind.
Mercifully, perhaps literally, the 24-year-old escaped serious injury in the Saturday night crash near the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
The two Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionaries, Scott Brezenski, of Missoula, Mont., and Myles Anderton, of Hurricane, Utah, confirmed that the driver crashed just seconds after he raised and waved his middle finger as they walked along the street.
"We were just walking and he looked back and flipped us off, then the car flipped 10 to 12 feet in the air," Brezenski said, adding that the driver was also carrying a cigarette in the same hand he used to make the gesture.
The driver, who was cited for driving while intoxicated, was not a DePauw student, campus police said.
On Tuesday, The DePauw reported, the driver, Benjamin Brewer of Bainbridge, Ind., was sentenced to one day behind bars and fined $820 by a Putnam County judge.