DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts.
The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day.
Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday.
The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of their rural Colorado neighbors on July 31 and dropped off small batches on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message: "Have a great night."
The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a dance where there might be cursing and drinking.
It reported that six neighbors wrote letters entered as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies.
But Young said she was frightened because the two had knocked on her door at about 10:30 p.m. and run off after leaving the cookies.
She went to a hospital emergency room the next day, fearing that she had suffered a heart attack, court records said.
The judge awarded Young her medical costs, but did not award punitive damages. He said he did not think the girls had acted maliciously but that 10:30 was fairly late at night for them to be out.
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So much for random acts of kindness...
*punches American justice in the face*
Freaks like that woman should be locked in a sanitarium where they can't be a menace to society.
God, I remember when I used to work at a supermarket and I had to deal with a couple of obsessive compulsive disorder freaks. The ones who had germ anxiety were the worst ones of all.
However, no one deserves a bigger punishment than the judge. As IGSM mentioned it's indeed a punch in the face to the American justice system.
God, I remember when I used to work at a supermarket and I had to deal with a couple of obsessive compulsive disorder freaks. The ones who had germ anxiety were the worst ones of all.
However, no one deserves a bigger punishment than the judge. As IGSM mentioned it's indeed a punch in the face to the American justice system.
To me, the Australian, it just seems like there's so many stupid, minute cases that are actually being won by the plaintiff. Ugh, cases like this one really make me wonder what will be next.
Sterotypes aside.
Sterotypes aside.
Sometimes all you can do is believe in karma... what goes around comes around. I'd like to think that judge will get what's coming to him at one point or another.
I read that in the paper! I guess that's democracy for you...
Urgh, how pathetic.
WOW.
That's inane. If a couple of teenage girls who could have been at a dance left cookies on my doorstep, I'd gain a little more hope for the world.
Come to think of it, I think that's an excellent idea. But I'm a little afraid to do it.
Come to think of it, I think that's an excellent idea. But I'm a little afraid to do it.
I wouldn't eat them , they might be poisoned .
that is definetely something i'm gonna forbid my granchildren to do! just listen to it!!! bake cookies??? that's satanic!!! wooooooow!
The girls should have made the old bitch some hash brownies...
How could cookies cause and anxiety attack? I don't get it... cookies would probably PREVENT me from having and anxiety attack.
Someone needs to send wackos like that woman some anthrax.
Where's Al Qaeda when you need them.
Where's Al Qaeda when you need them.