[MRM]

It might really have been a tinfoil hat and he might have been wearing it because someone told him to. I have recommended people wear tin (or aluminum) foil hats professionally. When I was a city attorney we had to cover "office duty" a couple of times a month, when the great unwashed masses could come it to the city attorney's office to seek redress of their grievences. It was common enough to have people complain that neighbors had implainted radios in their brains that the older attorneys developed an informal office policy to deal with them. Basically we would explain to them that it wasn't strictly illegal to implact radio receivers or mind control devices in people's brains, and since we could only enforce the laws that were on the books, we couldn't do anything for them formally. BUT, we did have some experience in these things, and we could offer some practical advice that would defeat the device that was implanted in their brains/mouth/ears, whatever. We would then go into great detail, explaining how aluminum foil would defeat the radio waves/microwaves/radiation, whatever, and all they needed to do was line a hat with aluminum foil and wear it. One of the attorneys in the office gained the trust of someone to the point that the person was able to function only with a ball of aluminum foil wadded up in their pocket.

Years later when I was in private practice I got a call from a woman who wanted me to sue her neighbors for implanting devices in her brain and using mind control devices on her. She wouldn't take my initial advice of contacting the county social services adult protection unit because the last time she talked to them they put her in an institution. Funny that, I thought. So I fell back on the old standby of gaining her trust and suggesting foil hats.

She called back periodically, reporting limited success and asking for more suggestions. We modified her program a little (more foil for her apartment) and she was able to function. Eventually I was able to talk her into going to a counselor and asked that if she did, she should call me. One day a psychologist called me and asked if I really was a lawyer. I laughed, assured her that the state bar association thought so, and that of all the crazy things the woman told her, it really was true that a lawyer suggested wearing tinfoil hats. To my great relief the psychologist told me I was doing the right thing and to keep suggesting that as a way of managing the woman's problem, and to use that success to move her toward other things, like ongoing therapy.

So for a while, there was a woman in St. Paul Minnesota wearing a tinfoil hat and lining her apartment with aluminum foil at the recomendation of a lawyer and psychologist. I hope it did her some good. Maybe the same thing is going on with the guy in your neighborhood.