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Post by Sheryl on Feb 4, 2005 23:03:58 GMT -5
Colorado Teens Fined for Giving Cookies to Neighbor
19 minutes ago
Add to My Yahoo! Oddly Enough - Reuters
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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Post by Chrisnstar on Feb 4, 2005 23:52:23 GMT -5
Oh brother! I suppose 1030 was a bit late, but gee whiz! I'll bet those kids don't try to do something nice for people anymore. No good deed goes unpunished,eh?
chris
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Post by Mary Ann on Feb 5, 2005 9:16:14 GMT -5
Geez that stinks! What's the message for kids?  |
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Post by KarenN on Feb 5, 2005 10:27:19 GMT -5
I saw an interview with the girls - geez I wish more kids were like them today, sweet, honest, and totally at peace with what happened - no malice in them at all. They understood, but said it wouldn't stop them from being philanthropic in the futurev  Maybe most of the kids out there really ARE like that, but we just never hear about the really good ones. |
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Post by Chrisnstar on Feb 5, 2005 10:52:25 GMT -5
I'm glad the girls are OK with what happened. Their neighbor must be a nutcase.
I had a neighbor like that when my son Aaron was a very little boy.
He was 2 years old and cute as a button. He played in our fenced in back yard or in the house.
My neighbor accused this 2YO of staring at her and bothering her. There was a 6 foot high chain link fence between this 2YO and her!
I ignored it. One day I was sweepign the front porch and Aaron was playing right by me and this neighbor just started screaming hysterically that this child was bothering her! He wasn't even looking at her, he was playing with a toy!
A few weeks later, the neighbor's husband knocked on my door and accused us of causing his wife to have a stroke. She was in the hospital. We were AWAY for the weekend when she had the stroke!
Gaaaaa....; I was so glad to move away from there!
chris
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Post by wildfire on Feb 7, 2005 11:05:20 GMT -5
Stupidity SHOULD be PAINFUL!
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Post by Littljoe on Feb 7, 2005 16:43:58 GMT -5
When my kids were little I had a good friend across the street who let her kids play in the altogether when it was hot, in their back yard which was surrounded by a very high solid wooden fence. One time a woman about three houses down the street called her to say how offended she was, because she could see the kids from her upstairs back window. I'm not kidding. She would have needed binoculars, LOL!
My friend was not shy, and the piece of her mind she gave this woman was not pretty. She never called back.
--LJ
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Post by denise on Feb 8, 2005 10:42:07 GMT -5
I have one that lives beside us (we each have 1+ acre and it is not enough). When my kids were younger and I didn't work, I used to take off to my parents for a few days at a time. When I would get back, she would give me blow by blow details of when my DH went to work in the a.m., came home in the p.m. and what he carried in with him. She also let it slip one day that when she was watching our house with binoculars......and then realized what she said. OMG get a life.
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Post by denise on Feb 8, 2005 10:46:35 GMT -5
I heard more about this yesterday and it isn't just the woman who is a nutcase. One of the father's of the girls had to get a restraining order on her husband because he kept calling their house threatening the girls with bodily harm.
I don't really agree with what the girls did. Their intentions were good but come on, 10:30 at night is a bit late to be leaving something on someone's doorstep when you don't know them, especially when the woman asked who is there and the girl's didn't respond, just ran off. It would be scary. She way overreacted but what's new.
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Post by Sheryl as guest on Feb 8, 2005 11:35:23 GMT -5
You know, maybe I am just too trusting, or maybe as parents of teenagers I just more tolerant. That would not have frightened me. If some teenagers rang my doorbell at 10:30 I would go scold them (hmmm, in fact I have done that) and explain manners about late night visits and phone calls. I know the world has bad people, but most people are good and most teenagers are just kids with no bad intent, just bad manners.
My oldest son, who wouldn't hurt a fly, really he is a gentle soul, went through a black clothes phase. When he visited his elderly grandma, the senior citizen neighborhood about had a cow and he wasn't permitted to to visit unless a parent was with him. His crime was walking down the street to his grandma's place and having a non conventional appearance. It made me so angry because he liked to drop by after school (it was walking distance) to give his grandma with failing health a little company. Unfortunately, my mother died a few months after that, before his appearance met neighborhood standards. Almost a year later, he now looks like an all American teen, blue jeans and a conservative haircut - he grew out if that phase just as I figured he would.
Anyway, back to triggering anxiety attacks, so does this mean I get to sue someone just because they upset me??? Having an anxiety attack is not a normal reaction to having your doorbell rung and finding cookies on your porch. Maybe I can sue the airline for putting me in a center seat, as I am a little claustrophopic. I find doing my taxes a little anxiety provoking. If I really thought about it, I think I could find better reasons for lawsuits....
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Post by denise on Feb 8, 2005 13:51:17 GMT -5
You said you would scold them. I would too, but in this case from what I heard on the radio, the girls did not respond when the woman opened the door and asked "whose there" to the shadows that she saw moving. They just ran away.
I agree that she overreacted by a country mile but if the girls had just said, "it is just so and so from down the road, we made you some cookies," she would have had no ground to do anything but yell at them, but because the girls didn't respond, she called the police, who found the cookies and told her it was someone just leaving them for her, no laws broken, they couldn't do anything. She then went to her sister's for the rest of the night and on to the hospital the next day.
But to be fair to some degree, we don't know her history, she could be a victim of a violent crime and her fear was justified. Most probably she isn't but we don't know. She is now paying the price though because she has supposedly received multiple threats via phone too. It was blown out of proportion for an innocent gift but in this day and age, isn't it better safe than sorry.
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