APPLE-BUZZ: MOM SUES OVER DRUNK KID. To read entire story and see pictures of Seth Pereles, log in with Username: newspaper_pass@yahoo.com and Password: password.
I’m surprised Annie Xmas didn’t post this one yet. She has a knack for finding those NY Post chestnuts. I guess if I had to choose between a severed finger in the chili or some booze in my kid’s sippy cup, I’d probably pick the latter.
Says registration needs to be confirmed when I try to log into that site.
Only $75,000? If I was Applebee’s legal rep, I’d be advising them to pay that before this woman gets all lawyered up and starts asking for a million.
They switched back and forth between two different spellings of the woman’s surname a whole lot.
I wonder if they need a proofreader?
Of course they do. They’re the Post.
The San Diego Padres’ team nickname is pronounced basically “POD-rays”. Often shortened here to “Pads”, pronounced “pods”. During the 1998 World Series, the Post insisted on spelling it “Pods”. Like we were supposed to be frickin’ peas or something. :smack:
Anyway, the story seems pretty weird to me. I don’t comprehend how someone would think it was appropriate to spike apple juice in a kiddie cup. Makes me wish I were 5, though.* 
*Hades? One-way? I’ll take the aisle seat.
I doubt very much that this was done on purpose. It was probably an idiotic screw-up. I agree that $75k is getting off cheap. The kid could have died. Maybe they keep apple juice and pre-mixed LI Iced tea in not very clearly marked plastic jugs and the bartender grabbed the incorrect one. I sure hope that this isn’t a scam like that lady who put the finger in the chili cup at Wendy’s.
A similar thing happened to me when I was ten or eleven. I was at a restaurant with my Dad and ordered a Coke with my meal. The dumbshit bartender sent me a Rum and Coke. Some poor dude somewhere else in the place was probably pissed off at what a weak drink he got. I told my Dad and he said that I should enjoy it. :rolleyes: The bartender was actually annoyed with me when I walked it over to him and explained what happened.
I can’t believe the kid actually drank it. Have you ever tasted one of those bad boys?
Per the quoted excerpt the suit is seeking more than $75,000. $75,000 being the minimum in alleged damages needed to establish federal jurisdiction when the parties to the suit are in different states.
JohnBckWLD, please don’t provide user names and passwords to access registration-required sites such as the NY Post. If other posters want to bypass other web sites’ registration requirements, that’s up to them; however, the SDMB should not play a part in it.
I’ve removed your link to the story as part of said registration concerns.
The first LI Iced Tea I ever tried was at an Applebee’s, and you couldn’t taste the alcohol in it it was so well made. But it doesn’t take long to feel it (they have about 2 1/2 - 3 shots of hard liquor in them. LI Iced Teas are my favorite drink choice. Come to think of it, I just might have one tonight.
May I ask why? Bugmenot.com is a valid site which allows you to bypass the annoying registration fields found at many newspaper sites. What’s wrong with allowing someone to access the article without providing personal info? It’s not like he’s giving the bypass to avoid paying a fee.
why does the Post even require resitration? Newsday doesn’t, nor does the NY Times. Perhaps it’s because the Post knows it’s presenting questionable material? (veracity-wise)
Well, I could be biased, DeadlyAccurate, since one of the worst drunks I’ve ever had was on LI iced teas.
Of course, that probably PROVES my point, now, doesn’t it? 
It’s just that the smell of one now makes me…shudder.
The New York Times requires registration, as does The Washington Post.
I go to their sites all the time and surf without having to sign in
You may be cookied.
Hi. I’m the wet blanket. Shoot at me.
This story feels wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I’ve been a bartender, and I am a parent, and there’s little about this that makes sense. Let’s see …
Does Applebee’s even stock apple juice? Well, maybe, in the winter, for hot buttered rum and similar drinks, but I’ll bet the juice is in a can. A small, single-serving can. There’s just not enough demand for the stuff to let it ferment in a plastic jug under the bar.
A child takes a sip of his drink, makes a face, and says “That tastes nasty.” The mother does not, at that point, taste it. Instead, she waits for him to continue drinking it (um, let’s pretend that toddlers will continue to drink stuff that “tastes nasty,” neither refusing it nor asking for some other beverage, until they’ve actually been poisoned), until he begins to act “erratically,” which brings us to –
How does a five-year-old’s behavior become “erratic?” What behavior is normal for a five-year-old that crosses the line for a drunk? Or vice-versa. Speaking of really poor diagnoses, there’s:
“Nurses giggled?” Probably not (Haven’t been one, but related to several and know the numbers of a few more). Nurses don’t giggle on the job much, and hardly ever when they have distressed children in their care, and even less than that in the presence of the kid’s parents. As for staff coming “from all over,” that had to be the slowest day ever in a battery park hospital.
Psychological trauma already? Wow. Of course you don’t want to let the ground get out from under your lawsuit, but exactly who is providing the initial diagnosis here?
I’d hate to be correct in the assumption that some woman slipped some vodka into her young son’s cup in an attempt to give him a much better future than he could otherwise expect ( and that’s the best construction I can give it), but the alternative is what? That some Applebees employee carelessly or intentionally put alcohol into a container that never ever calls for alcohol to be put in it? And thought to get away with it, even though they fire bartenders for giving away too many free drinks to the regulars?
So we have a case where no malice or intent was present, but that’s no matter, we’ve gotta sue somebody! I’ve seen apple juice and LI iced teas, and they aren’t close in color, unless you’re used to caramel-colored apple juice. That means the parent wasn’t paying attention to what the child was ingesting.
Sometimes stuff just happens, and you don’t need a lawsuit in response thereto.
I agree with **The King Of Soup’s ** take on it. In fact, I’ll go one step further, the litigious mom put dark rum into the juice, and when the kid said “that tastes nasty” she behaved as if it were one of his contrary moods (I won’t that! Eat it or no TV!) and told him to just be a good boy and drink his juice. The dark rum is an ingredient of LIIT, and would make the juice the appropriate color.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure they stock it. If they offer apple juice on the kid’s menu, like most restaurants of that type, they must stock it.
OTOH, yeah, the whole thing stinks (just a little bit) to me. If my kid got a glass of apple juice at a place like Applebee’s and said it tasted nasty, I’d check it out for myself. Gone bad? Fermented? Spoiled or whatever? My daughter once got a glass of milk at IHOP and said it tasted funny. Sure enough, it had spoiled. We called the waitress over and she got her a new glass of milk and comped my daughter’s meal and a dessert.
I’d be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but at the same time - I dunno. Seems a little fishy to me.