Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Good Thing That Guy In The Avalanche Wasn't Fooled

He had the right stuff, not the Duff stuff:

BRISBANE, Australia — A woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to selling on eBay three nonexistent cases of Duff brand beer - the favorite of cartoon character Homer Simpson.

Tara Edith Woodford, 28, pleaded guilty in the Mackay Magistrates Court in northern Queensland state to three charges of dishonestly gaining money by false pretenses.

Prosecutor Gavin Burnett told the court Woodford was paid a total of 1,951 Australian dollars (U.S. $1,511) by three separate buyers after advertising the bogus beer on the eBay Internet auction site.

Duff is the beer brand of choice for Homer Simpson and his barfly friends in the animated U.S. television series The Simpsons.

In the mid-1990s, two breweries released their own "Duff Beer" in Australia until legal action by the creators of The Simpsons and the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. took the beer off the market. Fox has a policy of refusing to license The Simpson's merchandising for products that would be detrimental to children.

Duff beer is now a collector's item and cases can sell for as much as A$1,000 (U.S. $774) on eBay, according to Lorraine Gledhill, the treasurer of the National Beer Can Collectors Club.

Buyers paid money into Woodford's bank account, but contacted police when they never received the beer.

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