Colorado judge fines girls for leaving cookies for neighbor

[Bluebear]

Two teenage girls have been fined for distressing a neighbour by leaving her home-baked cookies. Wanita Renea Young, 49, said she thought she had suffered a heart attack after the girls knocked on her door late at night and then left.

A judge told Taylor Ostergaard and Lindsey Jo Zellitte to pay Ms Young more than $910 (£485) in damages and court costs. The 18-year-old friends had baked the cookies as a surprise for several of their neighbours in Durango, Colorado.

They had decided to stay home on a Friday night and make the treats rather than go to a local dance. Six people who also received their goodies wrote to the court thanking the girls.

But Ms Young told the small claims court she was frightened because the girls had knocked on her door and then run off. She went to hospital the next day thinking she had suffered a heart attack.
Judge Doug Walker said he did not think the girls had acted maliciously but told them 10.30pm was late at night for them to be out.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13296330,00.html

[XanaDUer]

1. WTF?

...

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Terror cookies!

Granted I wouldn't eat any cookies just left on my doorstep without knowing who they were from, but that's a bit much!

[Bluebear]

4. Code orange! Code orange!

You're right I wouldn't eat them either. But 10:30??? The streets must roll up early there.

[name not needed]

5. Aaah! Hanta cookies!

[auntAgonist]

3. homeland security level: Chocolate Chip.

geez O'Petes. what next?

[Bluebear]

6. That's funny! :)

A kinder, gentler system to frighten the life out of people.

[candy]

7. No good deed goes unpunished. n/t

[ladjf]

8. The punishment seems too harsh. However, anyone should

know better than to knock on someone's door at 10:30 PM, especially
for some silly reason like leaving cookies. We may yet find out more information on this "caper". The girls might have some other reason for the cookie drop, i.e. finding out if anyone is home.

[fishwax]

11. They only knocked if they saw that lights were on inside

that way they figured they wouldn't be waking anyone up. That's according to the Denver Post article on the subject, anyway. So I doubt they were casing the joints.

[ladjf]

22. Still a bad idea to knock that late.

[havocmom]

9. Bet the hyper-sensitive, over-reacting hypochondriac is plagued in future

with flaming bags of poop on the doorstep for the next year or so.

She might consider switching to de-caf and looking into calming herbal teas. A Lewis Black routine comes to mind: "That's WAY TO MUCH coffee!"

[Bluebear]

10. I like how she went to the hospital THE NEXT DAY!

Thinking she had a heart attack!

[havocmom]

12. Yeah, she was REALLY concerned, wasn't she?

Everybody I have know to consider they might be having a heart attack gets attention REAL FAST!

What do you think the chances are she was grumbling about it to a friend and the friend put a bug in her ear about suing the perpetrator of such a heinous act? :eyes: Gotta have some sort of official documentation for the courts.

[Corgigal]

13. hate to back the 49 year old woman

BUT that is how lots of criminals test your home. They knock on the door to see if you open it or if they see any movement inside the house.

These girls were 18 years old. Makes them adult's and running around at night could have actually put them at risk of meeting up with the wrong passerby.

I think the 49 year old woman was pushing this a bit too much. Chest pain the day after the fact shouldn't be grounds. Then again maybe Ms Young was a victim of a violent crime in her past. If she was then I could understand what the judge did.

[Bluebear]

14. I'm not saying knocking on doors at 10:30 is a regular thing

But $910. 'restitution' is an awful lot of cookies if you ask me.

[Corgigal]

15. yeah

maybe her ER bill. I would have find them gas cost myself.

[ThorsHammer]

16. I'd fine the woman for a frivolous suit

[alwynsw]

17. Wanita needs a life

Either that, or she was looking for a quick payday.

Don't want or trust the cookies? Toss 'em in the trash. If she was that worried, why didn't she call the police at 10:30?

Bet these two girls will wait a long, long time before they attempt another act of kindness.

Thanks, Wanita. You've just made the world a more distant and distrusting place, asshole.

[Steve Nash is god 13]

18. whoa???!!!?

[Bluebear]

19. PICTURE/MORE about the deadly cookies here!

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.

"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. Wanita 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.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2691638,00.html

[Coventina]

20. WTF? Then I should have sued when my neighbor knocked on my door

at about 3am because she had been locked out of her house!

Yeah, it startled me, but jeez, I never thought it was lawsuit material.

:eyes:

People like Ms. Young make life suck even more than it already does.

If you're reading this Ms. Young, please kiss my snatch.
Thank you.

[JAbuchan08]

21. Oh my unknowable catalyst to the start of the universe,

I'd be willing to bet this lady is a winger.

[SmokingJacket]

23. I don't think we have the whole story here.

There's just something weird about it. What eighteen year old goes tiptoeing around leaving cookies for neighbors? At night?? Did they really think anyone would eat them?

The note they left ("T&L Club") looks exactly like something my seven-year-old would do.

Maybe these girls are mentally immature, and this story is exactly what it seems. But I'm thinking not.