It didn't take long for the story of a Utah father, accused of leaving his two-year-old son in a locked car during a late-night screening of "The Dark Knight," to do laps around the blogosphere.

"Candidate for father of the year" is how AOL's ParentDish blog labeled 23-year-old David Farnham. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton ran Farnham's mug shot with the word "dumbass" scrawled above his face. KevINda, a Chicago sketch-comedy duo, satirically sympathized with Farnham: "I feel you, dude. You gotta do what you gotta do. Stupid toddler."

A media flogging may be a mild punishment compared to what might have happened. Farnham is lucky the audience at the Century 16 didn't pummel him when South Salt Lake cops took him out of the theater. Here's an account of the arrest, from KSL:

Farnham, who has no prior criminal history, missed the last 10 minutes of the movie, and there was a slight interruption for everyone else when officers turned up the lights and arrested him inside the theater.

Movie goer Katty Zlochevsky said, "About the last 10 minutes, all of a sudden the screen turned off and everyone freaked out."

"Two cops came up with what looked like two managers," she explained.

With the movie off and the lights on, the officers told the packed crowd they were looking for Farnham. Then they told the crowd why.

"In regards to the baby left in the car," Zlochevsky said. "Then everyone kind of gasped."

"We all looked to see where he was, and he stood up and went down the stairs. And then people kind of threw stuff and started booing, and no one knew what to do," she said.

Farnham was taken away, and the last 10 minutes of the movie continued.

Labels: Stupid Criminals Division