The $50,000 Finger

Who knew flipping the bird could be so profitable? David Hackbart, a one-time waiter from Pittsburgh, has won a $50,000 lawsuit from the city after protesting a police officer’s citation for using the middle finger. Frustrated that a car behind him would not move one day in April 2006, Hackbart started flipping off people around him. "I heard a voice outside the car telling me not to do that and that frustrated me too. So, I flipped that person off and that turned out to be a police officer," Hackbart said. "I tried to explain to him it was constitutionally protected, what I did. He did not want to hear it and gave me a citation." The disagreement went federal, becoming a civil rights case, which Pittsburgh is now settling for $50,000. Hackbart said he’s only getting $10,000—the rest is going to his lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union.