Neighborly Act Results in $900 Fine

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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