WASHINGTON, November 15 (RIA Novosti) – The limits of what is acceptable in black humor will soon be tested in a US court, as an Internet technician is facing trial after terrifying two women with claims that teasing over his Russian heritage made him a serial killer, an Illinois newspaper has reported.
The unnerving conversation began when Michael Romanenko, 42, was on a maintenance call at a 32-year-old woman’s home in Naperville, Illinois, and spoke to her dog in Russian. The homeowner, described as “fluent in Russian” in a police report obtained by the Naperville Sun, commented on his language skills.
According to the police report, Romanenko explained to the homeowner and a female neighbor who was also present that his parents were Russian immigrants and that “other children used to pick on him for his Russian heritage and language,” which turned him into a serial killer.
Romanenko said his work as a technician made it easy to enter people’s houses, according to the report.
He explained that “he knocks on the front door, and when the resident goes to the front door, he goes around to the back door, gains entry to the house, takes a knife and meets the resident in the bedroom,” the newspaper quoted the police report as saying.
The women told Romanenko – who allegedly never said he was joking – that his story was “not funny at all” and that they were “very disturbed” by it. Romanenko told the women as he was leaving that he would see them again, according to the police report.
The women, described as “extremely frightened and shaken,” complained to police shortly afterward, the Naperville Sun reported Thursday.
Romanenko was fired after the encounter, although he told his employer that he was “just discussing television shows.”
Romanenko was arrested by police on October 28 and charged with disorderly conduct and breach of peace, according to court records.
Currently free on bond, he is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, the newspaper reported.
