No good deed goes unpunished.

[Proteas]

Welcome to America, the land of the free and the home of people who can successfully sue your ass in ludicrous court cases that shouldn't have even made it to trial in the first place...

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Article Published: Friday, February 04, 2005
Cookie klatch lands girls in court

Two Durango teens thought they'd surprise neighbors with nighttime deliveries of home-baked treats. But one woman was so terrified, she sued and has won.

By Electa Draper
Denver Post Staff Writer

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.

Source: The Denver Post
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THE COLORADO COOKIE RECIPE

1 cup shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pkg chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes (may have to adjust for altitude). Eat hot with a glass of cold milk for best results!

[LazyDrunk]

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.

Wow. Only in America.

This kinda makes me want to change my life's course. This way, as a judge, I'll be able to bitchslap the woman who sued these kids. The freaking woman rejected the family's offer to pay the medical bills, and instead brought it to court for medical bills AND personal damages.

What a cunt.

[Zloto]

Judges have to throw these cases out of court. They should disbar judges who rule such rulings in these cases. Since when is knocing on a door at 10:30 PM a crime?
maybe in the future, anytime you knock on a door, for any reason- may make you open for lawsuits? i mean, i could die from teror of you being a polite burglar, who decided to knock on my door

[cylon]

:" I just hope the girls learned a lesson."

What lesson, that being a nice person can get you sued by some overly paranoid crazy lady? COME ON.

[BAWLS]

I wouldn't want some "suprise" cookie delivery while I'm trying to sleep, but it's nothing to take to court over. I mean, did she try talking to them?

[Samuel-HALL]

At 2/4/05 09:13 PM, NotYouZ wrote: I wouldn't want some "suprise" cookie delivery while I'm trying to sleep, but it's nothing to take to court over. I mean, did she try talking to them?

*GASP*

You mean....communication? How DARE you even bring something like that up. You know society hates that kind of shit.

[Draconias]

I'll give her a good court case, just give me her address and I'd scare the shit out of her for being such an ass. There is reason that new laws to throw out such cases automatically are going through the legislative process (they were mentioned in the State of the Union, also). That is absolutely insane. Didn't the dumbass think to OPEN THE DOOR? Perhaps the freakin cookie and notes would calm her down from her own paranoia. The lesson here is that assholes shouldnt be given cookies.

[RedSkunk]

Who gives a shit?

[Slizor]

I wouldn't want some "suprise" cookie delivery while I'm trying to sleep, but it's nothing to take to court over. I mean, did she try talking to them?

It wasn't even that - they didn't deliever to houses with their lights off. Man that's pretty fucked especially since it was 10:30.

[36noir]

I thought frivolous law suits had to be thrown out....or maybe that's just me wishing that was so.

[bcdemon]

Well, I hope those two girls learned a valuable lesson from this. When you think of doing something nice for someone else, say fukit and do something nice for yourself instead, it costs less. Poor girls. lol

[Kaabi]

God dammit that sucks. Some people are so stupid.

[Gladius1000]

Its times like this that make me want to study law become a judge and Bitchslap the people who come in with stupid lawsuits.

[Jimsween]

Who doesn't have a nieghbor like that?

[BigBlueBalls]

This just makes you want to go and really break into her house, rape her, then shoot her. Stupid whiny bitches like this and take them out of the gene pool.

[cylon]

A Denver radio station raised the money to pay for this - very cool of them.

Cookie girls won't have to pay fine, Station raises money

[breachgnome]

I wouldn't eat the cookies.

On the other hand, I'd just throw the damn things away. No need to make a lawsuit out of some cookies whether you thought they were poisoned or not.

[BigBlueBalls]

At 2/6/05 04:57 AM, ben_dont_jump wrote: A Denver radio station raised the money to pay for this - very cool of them.

Hehe second best part of that story...

Wanita Young (bitch who complained) said, "This has turned into quite a fiasco. It's something that never should have happened and it's just devastating. My phone hasn't stopped ringing. My life has been threatened and I'll probably have to move out of town."

Stupid bitch deserves it. I bet now she's going to go through serious fits of panic, with the threatening phone calls and probably even some other neighbourhood kids who really will start to harrass her by continually playing Knicky Knicky Nine Doors on her house. Either that or I hope that they leave a bag of burning shit on her house next time.

[Jimsween]

At 2/6/05 04:57 AM, ben_dont_jump wrote: A Denver radio station raised the money to pay for this - very cool of them.

Cookie girls won't have to pay fine, Station raises money

Them and about 5,000 other people. I'm willing to bet by the end of the day these girls will be multi-millionaires.

[LazyDrunk]

At 2/6/05 09:20 AM, BigBlueBalls wrote:
Hehe second best part of that story...

Stupid bitch deserves it. I bet now she's going to go through serious fits of panic

Emphasis on serious.

I loved the part where's she's quoted saying, "I just hope they've learned their lesson."

OMG I love teh poetic justice.

[specimen56]

At 2/4/05 08:12 PM, Proteas wrote: THE COLORADO COOKIE RECIPE

1 cup shortening

WHAT THE FUCK IS SHORTENING?

Anyways.. Is there no limit to this kind of shit?

[Demosthenez]

"This has turned into quite a fiasco. It's something that never should have happened and it's just devastating. My phone hasn't stopped ringing. My life has been threatened and I'll probably have to move out of town."

Thank fucking GOD. Man, I REALLY wanted to kill that woman. That is probably one of the worst stories I have heard in some time. Anyone know where you can get her email address or address so we can send her hate mail? Cause the bitch deserves the hell outta it.

Wow, that made me much angrier than I thought any stupid story could make me. DAMN. Hope she has a heart attack.

[JoS]

At 2/4/05 08:12 PM, Proteas wrote: 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.

Like say a lawsuit?

[AntiangelicAngel]

Um... freedom of speech? 10:30 isn't even all that late... it's not even after curfew, in most areas.

[LordRobbo]

That's sick, how big of a bitch would you have to be to do that?

So let me get this this straight- these girls made cookies for other people to enjoy, only went to houses with lights on, so that they wouldn't wake someone up obviously, to give out cookies. And this lady gets scared by two teenage girls and.....no this is pointless. She is a stupid bitch who couldn't handle the fact she got scared by two girls handing out cookies. Now she is getting threatening phone calls.

There is only one word to describe this : Karma.

Anyway it was good of that radio station to raise that money, and great of the people who donated

[CathaI]

See, this is one of tha reasons why people hate Americans.

So many of them are completely paranoid.

[the-niratcire]

let me get this straight, some teens decide to do something nice, someone gets scared, the teens decide to do something nice by paying the medical bills. then the woman gets greedy by suing for even more money, the judge is stupid enough to say she wins her suit, people with common sense decide to help pay for the lawsuit and the greedy paranoid lady is scared because people are probably calling to say she was greedy and paranoid. sometimes i hate the logic in this country.

moral of the story: stop trying to do nice things for people.