Update on the Cookie bandits

[gridlore]

Remember the two girls who did a nice thing by leaving cookies for their neighbors, then got sued?

There's an update.

DURANGO, Colo. (AP) - Two teenage girls who got in trouble for surprising their neighbors with homemade cookies will not have to pay nearly $1,000 in medical bills for a woman who says she was so startled that she had to go to the hospital.

Radio station KOA-AM of Denver raised more than $1,900 from listeners Friday to pay the girls' $930.78 fine. The rest of the money will go to a charity dedicated to victims of the Columbine High School massacre.

Hell, I'd give the extra money to the girls!

But it gets better.

Meanwhile, Richard Ostergaard, father of Taylor, got a restraining order against Young's husband, Herb, in county court, claiming he continues to make harassing telephone calls to the Ostergaard residence.

Not content with suing teenage girls, huh? The Youngs seem to be real winners.

Wanita Young 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."

Good riddance! You're a paranoid, vindictive twit! Hell, a normal person would have accepted the girls' apology and their offer to pay the medical expenses. But no, you7 had to drag them into court! Of course you're hated by the entire country now!

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

I think it's great that a radio station did fundraising for them. Honestly, the whole situation's rediculous.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Only in America...

Seriously, that wwouldn't have happened up here. First off, no medical bills for that. Second, the lawsuit would have been thrown out of court.

[odanu.livejournal.com]

Good riddance! You're a paranoid, vindictive twit! Hell, a normal person would have accepted the girls' apology and their offer to pay the medical expenses.

Hell, a normal person would have opened the door, seen the cookies, and been thrilled about how sweet and nice these two girls were doing.

[ashi.livejournal.com]

I occasionally mail surprise cookies to online and offline friends. So far, no lawsuits.

I don't advocate threatening phonecalls to paranoid, vindictive twits, but she should not be surprised by such. I'm not.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm a paranoid. If I had people rustling around my front door at night, and I called out, "Who's there?" and got no reply (which is what the girls did), my next -- fairly loud -- shout would be on the order of "Identify yourself! I have a gun!"

This is because my neighbor had a breakin attempt last weekend, I (loudly) interrupted a 415 physical on the sidewalk out front a few days ago, the local police response time is 30 minutes because of a stupid two-officer safety rule, and last but not least, we have a criminal hotspot right next door. Welcome to my neck of California.

I can see how an alone, frightened woman might be very concerned -- especially if she didn't know how to proceed to protect herself.

That said, the girls' apology should have been accepted. This is even though I don't like children, don't eat other people's homemade cookies unless I already know them, and would probably ask Officer Friendly to kindly explain to the girls how their innocent actions could easily be misinterpreted, or worse.

Of course, in Canada if a burglar comes to your door, I guess you have to throw a rock at them or call the Mounties. Or invite them in for tea and cookies.

[kath8562.livejournal.com]

Thing was, the woman wasn't alone-- her mother (or MIL-can't remember which) and her daughter were at home with her! Gee, if she didn't want to answer the door,send one of them to do it!

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

Of course, in Canada if a burglar comes to your door, I guess you have to throw a rock at them or call the Mounties.

And make fun of countries so messed up that shooting at the neighbours really enters the realm of possibility.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Touche.

[odanu.livejournal.com]

I live in a city of over 100,000 that is sister city to a city of 300,000 in a metropolitan area of over 1 million. I have a hundred year old house that takes my seven year old less than a minute to break into.

My alarm system weighs 15 pounds and was bred for hunting badgers and weasels. I answer my door...and open it...when someone knocks at night. Living in fear is not living at all.

I have lived here for four years. I have had homeless people knock on the door at night to ask for an ambulance, friendly neighbors returning my eternally roaming stray dog that can jump any fence invented and open any door, and friends I haven't seen in years pop in just because, or relatives because they're in trouble and need someone to talk to.

Especially if it was summer (and since it just now went to court, it might have been), and in a rural community, I can't imagine the kind of idiot who wouldn't answer the door, or, if she knew she had an anxiety disorder, didn't install a front porch light and a peep hole.

I suppose I have little patience for people who don't use common sense. Even if she didn't have a peep hole, she did have a front window...and I thought that there was someone else in the house with her, a female relative. In any case, at the worst the girls showed poor judgment, but leaving surprise gifts is hardly a shooting offense, or a suing one.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

>> I suppose I have little patience for people who don't use common sense.

Agreed. I'm a paranoid living in a high crime area. Even from that perspective, this woman was unreasonable -- which was my point.

Unfortunately, my alarm system is only 15 pounds and was bred to hunt birds and mice.

Leaving surprise gifts certainly isn't a shooting offense, but breaking into an occupied house certainly can be. (Check your local laws, of course, your mileage will vary outside the USA.)

A surprise gift left at work, however, might just result in a visit from the bomb squad. (Then again, most people do not consider predatory major corporations the kind of neighbors one would leave cookies for.)

I'm pleased that you've never had any serious difficulty. Perhaps Canadians are more civilized.

[odanu.livejournal.com]

What makes you think I'm Canadian? My bio clearly states where I am writing from, and I am no where near the Canadian border. In fact, I am within half a mile of a potentially significant terrorist target...a Presidential library.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I don't generally surf people's bios when responding to comments. Talk about creepy stalker vibes. My apologies for mistaking you for a Canadian? (Not wanting to offend Canadians, or you, even though your bio states that you enjoy troll-baiting.)

A Presidential library is no more of a terrorist target than ten thousand other middle-rank Federal buildings. And how did we change from crime to terrorism? (Never mind that I consider all the terrorism to date to be much ado about nearly nothing -- i.e. a couple of monstrous criminal acts somehow artificially inflated to the status of war.)

At present my neighbors are living in fear. I'm trying to change that, but in the meantime, the space thirty feet in front of my place has a higher crime rate than most inner-city bus stations. The 415 physical I interrupted was a scumbag beating his girlfriend on the sidewalk out front. Similar incidents have happened three times in the last month.

Your bio also states that you are a liberal / armed Libertarian -- and implies that you are a nifty person. While your defense plans are none of my business, casually answering the door without checking first to see who it is can have very unpleasant consequences. This is a common MO for home-invasion robbers, sexual predators, police-assisted asset forfeiture, and other ills.

Thanks for your opinions.

[odanu.livejournal.com]

I don't have a peephole or an accessible front window. I do generally call out "who is it" and wait for an answer, and if I don't get it, I circle around from the back of the house to see who it is. I do have two dogs much larger (50 lbs +) than my little alarm terrier, both of whom are likely to attack anyone who attacks me, though both are gentle family dogs. I don't want to give the impression that I take no precautions. I do. I just don't worry about them much.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Civilized? Peaceful, certainly.

Our heroes tend to be people who did good for the community, rather than individualists who did what they wanted and damn the neighbours. The idea of, say, worshipping an outlaw is rather strange up here. (Not that we don't have people who do, just that they are outside the mainstream culture.)

Look up Sam Steele, or James MacLeod.

[odanu.livejournal.com]

I don't have a peephole or an accessible front window. I do generally call out "who is it" and wait for an answer, and if I don't get it, I circle around from the back of the house to see who it is. I do have two dogs much larger (50 lbs +) than my little alarm terrier, both of whom are likely to attack anyone who attacks me, though both are gentle family dogs. I don't want to give the impression that I take no precautions. I do. I just don't worry about them much.