Girls sued for giving out cookies

[mavsman55]

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Cookie klatch lands girls in court

Durango - Two teenage girls decided one summer's evening to skip a dance where there might be cursing and drinking to stay home and bake cookies for their neighbors.

Big mistake.

They were sued, successfully, for an unauthorized cookie drop on one porch.

The July 31 deliveries consisted of half a dozen chocolate-chip and sugar cookies accompanied by big hearts cut out of red or pink construction paper with the message: "Have a great night."

The notes were signed, "Love, The T and L Club," code for Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitti, 18.

Inside one of the nine scattered rural homes south of Durango that got cookies that night, a 49-year-old woman became so terrified by the knocks on her door around 10:30 p.m. that she called the sheriff's department. Deputies determined that no crime had been committed.

But Wanita Renea Young ended up in the hospital emergency room the next day after suffering a severe anxiety attack she thought might be a heart attack.

A Durango judge Thursday awarded Young almost $900 to recoup her medical bills. She received nothing for pain and suffering.

"The victory wasn't sweet," Young said Thursday afternoon. "I'm not gloating about it. I just hope the girls learned a lesson."

Taylor's mother, Jill Ostergaard, said her daughter "cried and cried" after Judge Doug Walker handed down his decision in La Plata County Small Claims Court.

"She felt she was being punished for doing something nice," Jill Ostergaard said.

The judge said that he didn't think the girls acted maliciously but that it was pretty late at night for them to be out. He didn't award any punitive damages.

Taylor and Lindsey declined to comment Thursday, saying only that they didn't want to say anything hurtful.

Young said the girls showed "very poor judgment."

But Taylor had asked her father's permission to bake cookies for the neighbors after livestock-tending chores were done.

"I said, 'Go ahead, as long as I get some cookies,"' Richard Ostergaard said Thursday.

Just as dusk arrived a little after 9 p.m., Taylor and Lindsey began their mad spree. They didn't stop at houses that were dark. But where lights shone, the girls figured people were awake and in need of cookies. A kitchen light was on at Young's home.

Court records contain half a dozen letters from neighbors who said that they enjoyed the unexpected treats.

The cookies were good. It was a nice surprise. They weren't scared.

But Young, home with her own 18-year-old daughter and her elderly mother, said she saw shadowy figures who banged and banged at her door. When she called out, "Who's there?" no one answered. The figures ran off.

She thought perhaps they were burglars or some neighbors she had tangled with in the past, she said.

"We just wanted to surprise them," Taylor said.

Young left her home that night to stay at her sister's, but her symptoms, including shaking and an upset stomach, wouldn't subside. The next morning she went to Mercy Medical Center.

"We feel that knocking on a door and leaving cookies is a gesture of kindness and would not create an anxiety attack in the general public," Taylor's parents wrote to the court.

The girls wrote letters of apology to Young. Taylor's letter, written a few days after the episode, said in part: "I didn't realize this would cause trouble for you. ... I just wanted you to know that someone cared about you and your family."

The families had offered to pay Young's medical bills if she would agree to indemnify the families against future claims.

Young wouldn't sign the agreement. She said the families' apologies rang false and weren't delivered in person. The matter went to court.

Young said she believes that the girls should not have been running from door to door late at night.

"Something bad could have happened to them," she said.

[Smiles]

It's even more rediculous that she felt that "something could have happened to them". She was out for attention, and to make a point. Otherwise, she'd have accepted a written commitment to pay her medical expenses.

People who experience anxiety attacks (I didn't know they lasted as long as 12 hrs!) should recognize that they have a problem with situations that do not affect the general public. Since it's not something you can just "shut off", then they should get professional help and not act like it makes them a premadana (sp?).

But I bet you that womans family caters to her when she has an attack. It pays to be a Drama Queen.

[AnMan21]

I saw this lady interviewed on fox news the other day - she was so nervous to be on camera and on the verge of tears. I was thinking she was going to have another anxiety attack and sue Fox. She was claiming the girls banged hard enough on the steel door to dent it to the need of replacement. What a joke! She's lucky I wasn't the judge - she wouldn't have gotten a penny considering she already denied the apology and offer to pay her medical bills. Has it gotten so bad that we can't even do a nice deed for a someone? I got an idea lady, instead of suing, pay it forward.

[#41]

I guess those two girls had been drinking.

[Usually Lurkin]

Taylor's mother, Jill Ostergaard, said her daughter "cried and cried" after Judge Doug Walker handed down his decision in La Plata County Small Claims Court.

The mean old lady is vicious and cruel and has an obvious malicious intent towards the girls. The mean old lady should be sued for the distress and developmental damages caused to the girls and the community. The idiot judge should be sued too.

But Young, home with her own 18-year-old daughter and her elderly mother, said she saw shadowy figures who banged and banged at her door.

The misperception was Young's fault, not the girls'. They are not responsible for Young's undisclosed abnormal state of anxiety-readiness.

Young wouldn't sign the agreement. She said the families' apologies rang false and weren't delivered in person. The matter went to court.

This is the best part. The last time the girls tried to personally deliver something nice to Young, it didn't turn out very well. I'm sure that if the girls tried to hand-deliver the apology, there would be another anxiety attack.

[mavsman55]

I wonder if she flips out and sues her mailman every day when he shows up at her house to deliver the mail as well.

[TripleDipping]

What a a-hole. [img]i/expressions/anim_roller.gif[/img]

[EricaLubarsky]

This is why I hate lawyers, but its how to get even:

she should have counter-sued. A good lawyer would have gotten medical background brought into it and at the very least the woman would have dropped her case.

[sike]

this just reinforces the age old truth: don't ever do anything nice for nobody!

[EricaLubarsky]

you gotta sell those suckers in front of Walmart, girls, and send people the cash!

just make sure none of that sugar falls into the envelope.