October 24, 2006 | Funny Bits

Odd habits die hard

Chocolate. Cigarettes. Mannequins in French maid's uniforms. People have all sorts of cravings. And they'll go to great lengths to satisfy them, too. Take Ronald Dotson and Scott Blauvelt, for instance. In the news separately this month for trying to satisfy strange urges, they're proof that old (and odd) habits die hard.

For his part, Ronald Dotson is addicted to mannequins. According to Canoe, the 39-year-old from Ferndale, Mich., was arrested recently for at least the sixth time in 13 years for breaking and entering in pursuit of his fetish for female mannequins. Out of prison for less than a week for a prior episode, he smashed the windows of a cleaning supply store in order to get intimate with a mannequin in a French maid's uniform.

"He told his parole officer he was going to buy a mannequin so he didn't have to do these break-ins anymore," Detective Brendan Moore said. "Apparently that didn't work out."

Things haven't worked out for Scott Blauvelt, either. A city prosecutor in Hamilton, Ohio, he was fired recently for allegedly taking nude strolls through public buildings. According to The Enquirer, Blauvelt faces two counts of public indecency for walking naked in Hamilton's Government Services Center Oct. 4-5.

Blauvelt has admitted to taking several similar strolls in the past five years, but blames them on mental illness and on brain damage suffered in a car wreck last year (in which he was also naked!)

• Man in erotic pursuit of mannekins arrested [Canoe]
• Hamilton fires naked prosecutor [The Enquirer]