Man Who Has Worn Same Scratched Glasses for 12 Years Claims Vision Is 'Fine'

Area resident Frank Torrance has been wearing the same pair of prescription eyeglasses for twelve consecutive years without cleaning, adjustment, or updated prescription, a duration that his optometrist called 'a personal affront to the entire profession' and Torrance himself describes as 'they still work.' The glasses, a metal aviator frame purchased from LensCrafters in 2014, feature scratch damage so extensive that the optician who examined them reported being 'unable to see through them at all.' 'I held them up to the light,' said optician Margaret Bevel. 'It was like looking through a shower door. A frosted shower door. In a bathroom that hasn't been cleaned since 2014, which, incidentally, is when these lenses last saw a microfiber cloth.' Torrance's prescription has changed significantly in the intervening twelve years. His current refraction shows a full diopter shift in both eyes and the emergence of presbyopia requiring progressive lenses. 'He's been walking around functionally under-corrected for at least eight years,' said examining optometrist Dr. Vertex Distance. 'With the scratches acting as a diffusion filter, his effective visual acuity is somewhere around 20/60. He drove here. On the highway.' Torrance was unmoved by the assessment. 'I can see everything I need to see,' he said. 'Faces, roads, the TV. Is it a little soft? Maybe. But I'm used to it. Honestly, everything looks fine once you stop comparing it to what other people call fine.' His wife, who accompanied him to the appointment, disputed this characterization. 'He waved at a mannequin last week,' she said. 'At Target. He said hello to it. Then he told me it was rude for not waving back.' Torrance has reluctantly agreed to new glasses but has requested 'the same frame, if they still make it.' They do not.