How many Austrians does it take to change a lightbulb?
I don’t know either, but they’ve probably got some kid locked in their basement.
As far as national stereotypes go, “locks kids in their basement for years on end” is not the one you want to be known for but it seems to have happened. Despite happening in South Africa what immediately drew my attention was the nationality of the dude, through some sort of weird confirmation bias effect.
Austria was unfortunate in that two of these incidents occurred within a year of each other and this is the sort of thing people remember. First the Natascha Kampusch case (who now has her own talk show) and then of course the Fritzl case.
Now there’s this case, which at least appears to be mercifully free of the sexual abuse component, instead giving us a boy who was “locked in a bizarre make-believe world of paranoia and warship attacks” which sounds a lot more fun than it probably was.
I’m wondering whether this whole locking kids up thing is a new trend or if it has just been getting more attention lately.
