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Waupaca man wins lie contest

Lockwood named champion liar for second time

By Robert Cloud


Lockwood

A retired teacher won the 2019 Burlington Liars Club World Champion Lie Contest.

Daryl Lockwood, of Waupaca, won his second contest with the following lie:

“I went to the bank yesterday and asked the clerk to check my balance. She came out from behind the counter and pushed me over.”

Lockwood said he and his friend, Gene O’Brien, have been sending lies into the contest for about seven to eight years.

“We get together once a week to go over the weekly happenings in the area and occasionally we come up with lies to send into the Burlington Liars Club,” Lockwood said.

Lockwood first won the contest in 2013.

His winning lie was, “My new health insurance plan contains so many clauses that Santa is considering suing for defamation of character.”

O’Brien won the contest in 2015 with a whopper about his family.

“I grew up in a family with 16 children,” according to O’Brien. “I never got to sleep alone until I got married.”

Club origins

The Burlington Liars Club dates back to 1929 when a local reporter needed to submit copy to newspapers in Milwaukee and Chicago during the holidays.

Since there was no crime or fires to report, he made up a story about a fibbing contest.

Although the accounts vary, the contest’s judges were lawyers and reporters because they were experts at lying. They met at the police station.

First place in the imaginary first contest reportedly went to the town’s police chief when he said he could not compete because he never told a lie.

The judges knew better.

To the reporter’s surprise, his story made its way into newspapers across the country.

When asked for a photo of the winner, the reporter brought several other Burlington residents, including the police chief and the mayor, in on his hoax.

The Burlington Liars Club was then formed.

Over the years, the club has been receiving hundreds of lies, whoppers and fibs annually.

More lies

Other lies entered in 2019 included this one from Bill Apmann, of Racine: “I didn’t notice that my new television remote had a button labeled ‘mutate’ instead of ‘mute.’ When I pressed it for the first time, my television turned into a dishwasher.”

“I can’t believe I got fired from the calendar factory. All I did was take a day off,” according to Donna Ziebell, of Niles, Illinois.
Robert Puntillo’s entry was “I bet on a dog in the sixth race that was so slow he won the seventh race.”

To enter the contest for 2020, email entries to [email protected] or address them to The Burlington Liars Club, P.O. Box 156, Burlington, WI 53105.

To become an official card carrying member of the Burlington Liars’ Club, include $1 for each membership along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

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