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  • SATURDAY FEBRUARY 5 2005 12:31 PM

Neighborly Act Results in $900 Fine

Submitted by SquidProQuo

Edited by SquidProQuo

Two Colorado teenagers have been ordered to pay $900 in medical and court costs after a gift of cookies and paper hearts caused the recipient to experience anxiety and panic attacks.

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.


Forty-nine year old Wanita Renea Young, one of the neighbors who received the cookies, filed suit after being seen in the emergency room of a local hospital the next day. She claims that the gift, left on her doorstep at 10:30 p.m., had frightened her so badly that she thought she had experienced a heart attack.

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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Comments
gromit

gromit

United Kingdom
October 2004

FEB 06, 2005 06:00 AM

Hey I'd sue!!

everyone knows that COOKIES attract MONSTERS!!!!! biggrin biggrin biggrin


dem_z

dem_z

United Kingdom
June 2004

FEB 06, 2005 06:05 AM

Starr said:
So... was the 17 year old made to pay, or were her parents charged?
I would be so pissed.


The sad and annoying thing is that the children wrote an apology and the families offered to pay medical costs before it went to court. So, even if the girl was fined I guess her parents will help her pay the fine.

I hope the community will help them pay the fine; the reports suggest that most people liked to cookies and had written thank you notes to the girls.

dem_z

dem_z

United Kingdom
June 2004

FEB 06, 2005 06:07 AM

beaky said:

demetrius_z said:
Wait, you missed a photo. They look FUCKING EVIL mad eeek eeek mad eeek eeek



See?

EDIT: Wait, I didn't mean "FUCKING EVIL", I meant "sweet and cute", but not in a shaggable way.

I would be freaked if I see them two in my doorstep at 10:30 pm, no matter how hot they are


Especially if they look like that, shuffling along with their arms outstreched moaning " skull Cookies..... cookies ... skull skull .... cookies....... skull skull "

Waldo_Jeffers

Waldo_Jeffers

United Kingdom
OLD SKOOL

FEB 06, 2005 06:16 AM

This is the stupidist thing I have heard in a good long time!! Its really sad to think that we live in a world in which random acts of kindness are penalised! frown

starry_eyed

starry_eyed

Owings Mills, MD
September 2004

FEB 06, 2005 06:46 AM

yeah when i was 17 and 18 10:30 was wayyy too late for me to stay out.

what's a crock.

Bastardo

Bastardo

Boston, MA
January 2005

FEB 06, 2005 07:34 AM

demetrius_z said:
Wait, you missed a photo. They look FUCKING EVIL mad eeek eeek mad eeek eeek



See?

EDIT: Wait, I didn't mean "FUCKING EVIL", I meant "sweet and cute", but not in a shaggable way.

[Edited on Feb 05, 2005 by demetrius_z]


Uh yeah, I'm with you Z, definitely not in a shaggable way.




Especially the one on the right. wink

cspeedball

cspeedball

I'm lost
July 2003

FEB 06, 2005 08:06 AM

starry_eyed said:
yeah when i was 17 and 18 10:30 was wayyy too late for me to stay out.

what's a crock.



It's a pot for cooking smile

[Edited on Feb 06, 2005 8:07AM]

AtmosphericChaos

AtmosphericChaos

Vancouver, BC
April 2004

FEB 06, 2005 08:18 AM

Spartacus said:
Its funny. I never ever in my comments said that "W" is behind anything. "W" isn't the mastermind of anything. The words "master" and "mind" shouldn't be mentioned alongside "W" as they would have no applicable meaning. I see this article as something cooked up by a low-level conservative group who may or may not have anything to do with the Republican party. Its interesting that anytime someone on the left writes an article examining and critiquing the methods and practices of the right it is considered "whining." I have no respect for the Republicans or the Democrats. They are two heads of the same corporate Hydra. Labor Unions are full of corrupt bureaucrats whose values line up with the CEO's and against the rank and file workers. There is no argument about this. But I don't see how its relevant to what I'm talking about. I'm simply stating that this piece of "news" stinks to high heaven of being a planted piece, something to stir up resentment and outrage wherever its heard. I'm skeptical when I read such things. The scenario is just so unlikely to me. It reads as a badly written piece of propaganda. It looks like amatuer hour, typed up by some right-wingers who are eager to shill for their Fearless Leader in the White House.




I'm not going to say that this story is propaganda, because there's no way for us to know for sure... but there is a good chance that it is. For years the gov't/major corporations (not just American ones either) have been using national media as a vehichle for their propaganda. Read "Toxic Sludge is Good for You : Lies, Damn Lies, and the P.R. Industry" It's a very shocking read that shows that one must not always believe what they read/see/hear from the media.

RandomNerd

RandomNerd

I'm lost
January 2005

FEB 06, 2005 08:26 AM

What makes this kind of dumb is that I was told when I was a wee lad that you shouldn't take candy from strangers... nor Cookies.

The young ladies that baked them were not strangers, they wrote their names on the little notes, if you refer to the picture. After all, a plate of cookies randomly appearing is suspicious!

Ms. Young shouldn't have sued. She should have known better than to panic so. Did she even eat the cookies? The only thing I could say about the bakers is that they should have waited until morning to present the cookies to neighbors.

Whoever thinks this was a right-wing fabrication designed to innoculate us to legitimate lawsuits has never heard the cliche, "Truth is stranger than fiction".

Bush doesn't want to get rid of the paternalistic state (The mentality in government that encourages this sort of nonsense, like coffee cups that read "the coffee inside is HOT!" and lets you sue to make the world a "Safer" place) the POTUS is a politican after all, and that means he needs to control people. Though he SAYS he wants to get rid of them, Frivolous lawsuits won't go away (After all, subjective opinions decide what's frivolous) they help perpetuate the belief that when something's wrong, you go talk to your happy lawyer and seek help from your Gi-huge-ic government. It keeps you dependent, and that's what he needs. I think the money his corporate buddies may lose in lawsuits (Chump change, anyway) is irrelevant compared to the benefits he finds in getting people to trust in the state so completely.

Ahem. Many things said in this post were subjective, if anyone has an opposing opinion, please make it known. If anyone has an objective fact to correct me, please do so... I'm better off being corrected and humbled than ignored and ignorant.

Mythicus

Mythicus

Lawnside, NJ
May 2004

FEB 06, 2005 08:26 AM

now, all i can think about is this:

madryan

madryan

Madison, WI
November 2002

FEB 06, 2005 08:59 AM

It's things like this that really make me hate the entire world.

TheAngus

theangus

Raleigh, NC
January 2004

FEB 06, 2005 09:16 AM

this is redonkulous.

fuck

fuck

Detroit, MI
April 2004

FEB 06, 2005 09:46 AM

cookies of the deadly kind huh? sweet.

how does one sue someone for giving them cookies?

i would sue someone for not making me cookies.

this is ass backwards. surreal

dem_z

dem_z

United Kingdom
June 2004

FEB 06, 2005 10:11 AM

TheIRisHBaSTarD said:

demetrius_z said:
EDIT: Wait, I didn't mean "FUCKING EVIL", I meant "sweet and cute", but not in a shaggable way.


Uh yeah, I'm with you Z, definitely not in a shaggable way.




Especially the one on the right. wink


biggrin Well, I'm not sure how old they are in the photo, so just in case one of them was under 18 at the time: They're sweet and cute, but not shaggable.

Frenchy

Frenchy

San Francisco, CA
November 2004

FEB 06, 2005 10:31 AM

That's seriously FUCKED UP!!! What the fuck is wrong with those pple?!

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