Frightened neighbor sues teens over late-night gift — and wi

[Chris Luva Luva]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6914824/?GT1=6190

DURANGO, Colo. - Two teenage girls who surprised their neighbors with homemade cookies late one night were ordered to pay nearly $900 in medical bills plus court costs for a woman who says she was so startled that she had to go to the hospital.

La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker declined Thursday to award punitive damages, saying he did not believe the girls acted maliciously but that 10:30 was fairly late at night for them to be out.

Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitti, then 18, baked the chocolate chip and sugar cookies one night last July. They made packages with a half-dozen cookies each and added large red or pink construction-paper hearts that carried the message, “Have a great night” and were signed with their first initials: “Love, The T and L Club.” Then they set off to make their deliveries.

The Denver Post reported 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.

‘Shadowy figures’ and no answer to ‘Who’s there?’
But Wanita Renea Young, 49, said she was at her rural home south of Durango around 10:30 p.m. when she saw “shadowy figures” outside the house banging repeatedly on her door. She yelled, “Who’s there?” but no one answered, and the figures ran away.

The teens said they did not answer when the woman called out because they wanted the treats to be a surprise.

Frightened, Young spent the night at her sister’s home, then went to the hospital the next morning because she was still shaking, had an upset stomach and feared she had had a heart attack.

Apologies called insincere
The teenagers’ families offered to pay Young’s medical bills, but she declined and sued, saying their apologies were not sincere and were not offered in person.

The girls declined comment after the ruling. Taylor’s mother said her daughter “cried and cried.”

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

Young said the teenagers showed “very poor judgment”

“The victory wasn’t sweet,” Young said. “I’m not gloating about it. I just hope the girls learned a lesson.”

The two were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs. They paid the judgment Thursday, a court clerk said Friday.

[General Failure]

This is why you should never ever talk to your neighbors. They're nothing but trouble.

[Jeremy81]

i hate people sometimes...stupid old lady suing some kids for trying to be nice...if i lived in the neighborhood and i heard about what happened, i'd doorbell ditch and egg her house every night until she moved...

and instead of 10:30, i'd do it at 11:30

DUMB LADY!!!!

[BringThePain!]

i hate people sometimes...stupid old lady suing some kids for trying to be nice...if i lived in the neighborhood and i heard about what happened, i'd doorbell ditch and egg her house every night until she moved...

and instead of 10:30, i'd do it at 11:30

DUMB LADY!!!!

How much do you charge? I've got a couple of neighbors I'd like to get rid of....

[Hooligan]

What an ungrateful sea-hag of a woman. You hear so much complaining about how the "youth of today" is garbage, and here are two girls getting shat on for going out of their way to be (sickeningly) nice.

People suck.

[Clinton Portis]

What a mean old lady. They baked her cookies! How can you be mad at someone who baked you cookies. If a shadowy figure runs away from MY house, I look out the door with a weapon,check around, and take my cookies!

Point is, it was good intentions. That lady needs to chill and take her Centrum.

[General Failure]

I heard Santa Clause is still in the hospital after he dropped off presents for those girls.

[Redskins4Life]

Thats some crazy stuff

[Chris Luva Luva]

If I lived there I'd play pranks on her just for being that freaking mean. I'd have her in the hospital for weeks.

[General Failure]

Pranks like, oh I don't know, a ticking alarm clock in an unmarked brown box on her front step?

[patrickg68]

If a person came to your house to harm you, would they knock on the door?

[Chris Luva Luva]

Only in America....

...Any Canadian's need an American roommate? eh Boss?

[air_hog]

I have the worst neighbors possible... COWBOY fans AAAAAHHHH!!!! well only the dad is a cowboy fan and the kids are Titan fans. its cool though cause there is 9 other kids on my street and we get like 5 on 5 football games going on and we all wear our team jerseys. its pretty sweet, plus we always have Super Bowl Parties, Draft Parties, and Fantasy Football parties (back to back champion yours truly) so actually ive got a pretty good neighborhood... for a kid.

[Skinsfan55]

Jesus Christ!

I got to school at Fort Lewis College in that same town and this is the first I've heard of it! Unbelieveable! I cannot believe that a person would stoop this low. Disgusting.

I don't want to get in trouble with the law, but anyone who wants to come to my house and stay a couple nights to use my apartment as a "staging area" for eggings and tp'ing is more than welcome!

[hailskins666]

you can be sued in this country for wearing the wrong kind of deodorant. stick or spray?

[welch]

We talked about this one at work. In amazement.

Subtle points mentioned in the story:

- this is a 49 year old woman with her 18 year old daughter and 80'ish mother

- I lived in Monclair, NJ, a nifty town (fictional home of Tony Soprano's shrink, Dr Melfi. Tony himself lives just over the hill in North Calwell).

People hardly knew each other on our block, or any other block. No one used their front porches, which was/is a shame, since the town is mostly "arts&crafts" houses built about 1900 - 1910, with big front porches facing a sidewalk and the street. People gathewred on their porches and chatted, ate dinner in the summer, said hello to neighbros walkinmg from the train and bus stations. Now most houses have a back deck, and people drive home, park in their two-0car driveways, and go to the back. It's like turning our backs on the public space. People connect through youth baseball, football, lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, swimming, the school committees, and a hundred other town-wide committees to keep up the twon gardens and libraries and schools. People get in their cars, drive to meetings, and drive home.

It all fits "Bowling Alone", a heavily statistical sociological study of the breakdown -- atomization -- of American community life. The book title refers to the bowling leagues that people used to belong to. Our last bowling alley closed three years ago, and was replaced by an expensive condo development.

I suspect that the "victim" is a very extreme example of the way Americans are disconnecting from face-to-face community. Hmmm.

- the woman said she was afraid the knocking was from neighbors she had had trouble with. Hmmm.

- a knock on the door and a friendly cookie sent her into an anxiety attack that had to be treated at a hospital. Hmmm.

- She sued for the cost of the ER visit, $900, which suggest that she has no insurance, and also hints at our wacky medical system. Chances are about 10 to 1 that the ER gave her clonazepam, or whatever this year's equivalent of valium is...which ought to cost about $5 for 20 or 30 pills.

- We concluded that (a) there is some weird story behind this story. (b) the judge ought to be impeached for stupidity (c) the girls probably didn't bother getting a lawyer, figuring the case was insane and (d) a lawyer would have called for a jury trial and a jury would have used a lot more common sense than this judge.

Also, the story brought to mind Michael Moore's movie about guns, "Bowling for Columbine", where he compares how many Americans have guns against how many Canadians -- about the same -- but found that Americans were scared silly about being victims of crime, where Canadians just shrugged. Moore had a devastating pair of scenes where he compared Detroit with Windor. He walked down a block in Windsor knocking on doors, which were unlocked, and walked into one house, uninvited, when no one answered. "Aren't you afraid to leave your front door unlocked?" he asked. "Well no," the woman said. "Why should I be? (Yes, our Canadian members can feel a little superior. Canadian scoiety has always seemed to me like that smarter, better behaved, morse sensible younger brother that your parents always praised..."why can't you be a little more like him?")

Moore concluded that American TV news created paranoia to pump up the TV ratings.

So, that's our summary. For background, my friend is an NRA member, who carefully locks his guns and who has a son in the NYPD. He belongs to a quiet evangelical church (hello, Redeemed!), and we sometimes get tired of talking C++ templates, and discuss bible translations and the early Church. My family is Church of the Brethren, Shenandoah Valley; in fact the Briery Branch COB was built on a corner of my great grandfather's farm. (Copy of an autographed picture of Norm Snead, Redskins QB, to anyone who has ever been through Briey Branch.)

But, the rambling point is that neighther of us are particular heavy ideologues. We agree that the Colof=rado story is deeply strange and disturbing.

[JansenFan]

I wonder if her number is listed.......maybe a few calls around 10:30 each night would get her used to it.....then again, it would probably just get me sued.