- You can sniff shoes if you want — but don’t break into your neighbors’ homes to do it.
Everybody has a kink, and that’s alright. You can be into sock puppet bondage or whatever as long as everybody involved is a consenting adult and you don’t bother anyone.
It becomes a problem, though, if you can’t keep your kink to yourself — like this guy from Greece.
A Greek court recently sentenced a 28-year-old man to probation for exhibiting… Bizarre behavior, shall we say.
Specifically, his neighbors had caught the young man sneaking onto their property and sniffing their dirty shoes.
After putting up with his antics for months, the neighbors’ cups eventually spilled over. They called the cops and the man was promptly arrested.
To his credit, the man said he was ashamed of his actions and aware that his compulsion was weird at best. He also acknowledged that he needed professional help, and the judge required him to seek therapy as part of his sentence.
Here’s hoping the guy can stop his shoe-sniffing escapades before he lands himself in jail.
‘It Makes My Life Better’
The foot-smell-obsessed 28-year-old lives in Sindos, a suburb of Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki. For half a year, his strange behavior has been a nuisance for his neighborhood.
According to local news reports, he has been trespassing on his neighbors’ property. He’s not there to steal or damage anything, though.
He just really wants to sniff their dirty shoes.
On multiple occasions, the unnamed man’s neighbors had caught him in their yards or homes, with his face buried in their shoes. Each time, he has left without causing trouble when caught, but let’s face it — that’s some unsettling behavior.
Of course, when noticing the man, his neighbors have asked why on earth he’s sneaking into their homes to smell their shoes. Each time, he has replied: “Because it makes my life better.”
At least he’s honest about what he’s doing.
An Easy Arrest
Eventually, however, people stopped putting up with the shoe-sniffing weirdo. One day, a 60-year-old neighbor caught the man in his yard, smelling shoes he had laid outside to air out
“I got upset and went to the police. I was told to call [the emergency number] when I spotted him doing it,” the neighbor testified in court.
So, the neighbor laid a trap. He purposefully left his shoes outside and stayed vigilant for three days, waiting for the shoe-sniffer to reappear.
Eventually, he did. That’s when the neighbor called the cops.
“I notified the police and he was arrested. We caught him in the act,” the neighbor said. However, he emphasized to the court that the man never exhibited any “aggressive behavior” and willingly surrendered to the police.
The neighbor also said he doesn’t bear any ill will toward the man.
“I just want to help him and stop this act,” he added.
‘I Feel Very Ashamed’
Indeed, the shoe-sniffer has acknowledged that he needs help. Facing the judge, he said couldn’t explain why he did what he did.
“I do not know exactly how I came to do this act. I feel very ashamed and disappointed in myself,” he told the court.
The man said he was an only child and had been working to support his parents, but had recently lost his job. He said he had also had problems with his relationship, so perhaps the stress of his life situation got to him.
He explained that he never wanted to harm anyone at any point — he just wanted to smell some shoes. With that said, he acknowledged that his compulsion isn’t healthy.
“I know it’s some kind of illness and I’m going to do everything to get well,” he said.
Noting that the man expressed genuine remorse and a willingness to seek help, the judge decided to show leniency. He handed down a one-month suspended jail sentence and placed the man on probation for the next three years.
In exchange for not throwing him in jail, the judge required the man to seek therapy. Doing so, he hoped the man could resolve his problems outside of a prison environment.
Who knows, maybe he’ll even find someone who will let him sniff their shoes without committing criminal trespassing.