Crime & Safety

Man Tries to Cut Off His Penis in Riverhead

A guy walks into a hardware store and asks for a pair of scissors. It could be the beginning of a joke. But what happened next wasn't funny.

Riverhead Local is reporting that a man who had just bought a pair of scissors at Griffing Hardware in downtown Riverhead, then walked into a community service organization across the street and tried to sever his own penis.

Police said they responded to the Maryhaven community support office at 127 W. Main St. on a call for an ambulance at about 8:30 a.m. yesterday. They found the man inside, "standing up with a self-inflicted cut to his penis," according to the report. He had used a scissors in the attempt, police said.

The man, who was only identified as a white male, told police that he wanted a sex change operation.

As for the hardware store employees who sold the man the scissors, they didn't realize what he'd used them for "until a Maryhaven employee ran into the store looking to buy a bucket and bleach. The woman told the Griffing employees she needed to clean up a mess and explained what had happened."

Though severing, or attempting to sever, one's own penis—which falls under the category of genital self-mutilation—is an apparently rare act, several instances of it have been in the news lately. Most recently, the rapper Andre Johnson severed his penis with a steak knife and jumped from a Los Angeles apartment building while high on PCP. (Johnson survived the suicide attempt but doctors were unable to reattach his penis.)

But Johnson isn't alone. There's the Detroit-area man who ripped off his own penis while high on magic mushrooms; the Polish man who cut off his penis in front of diners in a London restaurant; and the lovelorn Chinese man who cut off his penis and then, in a fit of remorse, rode his bike to the hospital, forgetting to bring along one crucial item: his penis.


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