You can't do anything nice

[msd]

fuggedaboutit...

 

[GlassJaw]

I always get these kids knocking on my door after dark; every year in late October. Not only are they not trying to give me cookies, they're expecting me to give candy to them! Outrageous!

Citing Halloween (or any other holiday) as an example is a very weak argument. Still, 10:30 is late even on Halloween.

Every year my wife and I have put together plates of cookies and taken it to our friends and neighbors in the evenings, usually after dark, knocked on the door and ran. We do this for Halloween, for Christmas and for Easter. We've been doing it since we've been married, so 11 years now. I did it with my family before that.

My guess is this custom is not common. You can't fault the lady in this case for getting scared. Everyone responds to things in different ways. Maybe she was robbed before or even worse. You don't know and you can't assume.

Since she wasn't directly hurt by the girls, suing them is ridiculous, I think we are all in agreement on that. But any opinion you might have on whether people should be knocking on other people's doors (especially at night) is your own and really has no bearing on this case. As someone pointed out before, your own opinion can't influence the law.

Whether someone knocks on your door at night because they are in trouble, want to rob you, are delivering cookies, or if it's Pulisher's Clearing House is irrelevant. Suing someone (and winning) for knocking on your door is insane.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Citing Halloween (or any other holiday) as an example is a very weak argument. Still, 10:30 is late even on Halloween.

He was using a humorous form of speech known as a "joke". Apparently you have never run across one before...

I kid! I think you should step back, take a deep breath, and stop taking this so seriously. Either that, or scroll up to one of my posts that has my signature, go to the Damnation Army, and rant about it there.

 

[ledded]

And this too needed repeating. Barsoomcore for World Dicator!

Huzzah! Your secret plan is coming to fruition, my liege lord, as you foretold unto me in the prophecies of obtuse frivoloty! All hail!


Originally Posted by Crothian
Running away when someone calls out "who's there?" is suspicious though.


Well, I dunno, but if my neighbor was a raving nutbag like this lady and her husband apparently were, even if I were doing a nice thing, I'd probably run too. Or at least take cover.

My guess is this custom is not common. You can't fault the lady in this case for getting scared. Everyone responds to things in different ways. Maybe she was robbed before or even worse. You don't know and you can't assume

Hmmm.... personally, I think that her obvious desire for punitive damages even after the families offerred to pay her medical bills pretty much sums up all the intentions there. You want the court to award you a big chunk o' change from *your small town freakin' neighbors* because you got *frightened* by a knock at the door at night? Man, I need to get this lady to go see a M Night Shaymalan movie with me. Or buy a copy of William Shatner's new album. Either way, that's enough horror so that we'd be set for life.

Seriously though, I have to echo other sentiments here. This is one of the most incredibly obtuse things I've seen in quite some time. That it was allowed to get this far is absolutely amazing to me.

 

[GentleGiant]

Damn the boards are slow... thus a double post

 

[GentleGiant]

"one summer's evening" - "July 31" - "around 10:30 p.m."
Okay, right there that says to me that it most likely was just after dark, on a warm summer evening. People around here tend to stay out pretty late on warm summer evenings. So "late at night" is a loaded term and might not apply to everybody.
Furthermore, "one of the nine scattered rural homes..." - c'mon, we're talking out in the "after livestock-tending chores were done."-country here. Who would suspect any foul play in this area, on a warm summer evening?
Paranoid much? If so, that's still not the fault of the girls.
If this had been in the winter or in a more populated area, I could sympathize with Crotian and GlassJaw, but this was in the rural Colorado, on a summer eve... seriously, if you think that's dangerous, then obviously you're scared of anything. I wonder if she would have sued if someone's car had broken down and they were trying to borrow a phone. Or if it had been a policeofficer.
Furthermore, her panic attack apparently wasn't so bad that she couldn't wait until the next day to go to the emergency room...

 

[Desdichado]

Citing Halloween (or any other holiday) as an example is a very weak argument. Still, 10:30 is late even on Halloween.

Au contraire. 10:30 isn't very late at all. I can't even watch the flippin news until 11:00 in the Eastern Time Zone.

Since she wasn't directly hurt by the girls, suing them is ridiculous, I think we are all in agreement on that. But any opinion you might have on whether people should be knocking on other people's doors (especially at night) is your own and really has no bearing on this case. As someone pointed out before, your own opinion can't influence the law.

Then why did you and Crothian bring it up if it's not relevent?

Whether someone knocks on your door at night because they are in trouble, want to rob you, are delivering cookies, or if it's Pulisher's Clearing House is irrelevant. Suing someone (and winning) for knocking on your door is insane.

Ah, good. We're not losing sight of the real point here after all.

 

[Crothian]

Au contraire. 10:30 isn't very late at all. I can't even watch the flippin news until 11:00 in the Eastern Time Zone.

around here we have 10 o clock news. But I know lots of people who go to sleep around 10 each night, and I know people who leave lights on all night. So, just because the kitchen light was on doesn't mean people were up. THe girls made an assumption and they were wrong. Good intentions don't mean a lot when they cause panick in people. Now, the lawsuite is a another matter, it is rediculs, but that still doesn't make what the girls did and better.

 

[AuroraGyps]

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.

I wonder how much the police investigated that night? I don't know what procedure would be, but I can't help but think knocking on a few doors with lights on would have given them a bit more info. Granted, I don't think not answering the woman when she called out was smart and I don't think leaving a kinda vague messege with the cookies was smart either. I hope this woman is getting professional help for whatever problems she's having, but suing was a bit much. In fact, not suing might have gone a long way with the neighbors she's already having problems with.

 

[Krieg]

Why do these lunatics always have to be in *Colorado*? Why not Wyoming? Wyoming never makes the news.

It's because the lunatics in Wyoming don't have neighbors that live closer than 20-25 miles or so.