By Tim Binnall
In a bizarre story out of Vermont, a state lawmaker was busted secretly pouring water into a rival politician's bag as part of a months-long campaign of clandestine harassment. The very strange case reportedly began in January when Jim Carroll of the Vermont House of Representatives noticed that his belongings had been mysteriously soaked. Although he initially suspected that the odd event might have been the result of an errant drip, he soon began to suspect that his bag was being targeted by someone as it repeatedly wound up getting wet over the course of several months. Determined to get to the bottom of the moist mystery, Carroll used a hidden camera to watch over his belongings and the ne'er-do-well behind the incidents was quickly revealed.
To the dismay of Carroll and his colleagues, the individual soaking his bag for the last several months was fellow lawmaker Mary Morrissey. When confronted about the situation, the politician initially denied any wrongdoing. Then, presumably after being shown the footage that caught her in the act, she offered the dubious explanation that she was trying to flick at a bug and that she had no idea who owned the bag. Likely realizing that her colleagues were not buying that story, she eventually apologized, though failed to offer any specific reason for why she had been secretly harassing Carroll for the last several months.
After word of the weird scandal was picked up by a local media outlet, Carroll opted to share the hidden camera footage in an effort to put the entire affair to rest. In one of the videos, seen above, he can be seen reaching into his bag and then leaving the room. Moments later, Morrissey strolls up to the spot and casually pours a cup of water into the bag before quickly exiting the scene. With the lawmaker's peculiar behavior now being revealed to the public, she issued a formal apology at a Vermont House of Representatives session on Monday wherein she declared that "I am truly ashamed of my actions."
Morrissey's curious harassment campaign is currently being investigated by the Vermont House Ethics Panel, which may lead to the lawmaker facing some kind of disciplinary action. For his part, Carroll lamented that the experience was particularly troubling for him as he had no idea who could have been behind the torment and, as such, "I walked around this place, paranoid of my fellow legislators." While the lawmaker indicated that he accepts Morrissey's contrition "in the spirit of forgiveness," he ultimately expressed skepticism over whether or not it was genuine, musing that "her apology holds about as much water as my canvas bag.”