# Obnoxious, Paranoid Bitch Sues Neighborhood Kids For Bringing Her Cookies...Wins **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 4, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405 "2005-02-04T18:33:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/101 "2005-02-05T02:45:05Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. The next day? Is a delay like that really plausible? I’ve had anxiety attacks, but they were immediately after/during the event (driving in bad weather, usually) that served as the trigger. If she suffers from anxiety attacks frequently, anything could have tiggered it the following day… or do some people have really delayed reactions like this? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/102 "2005-02-05T02:49:23Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/103 "2005-02-05T02:55:49Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > The next day? Is a delay like that really plausible? … or do some people have really delayed reactions like this? Of course the attack took place immediately. The ambulance turned up after five minutes and the EMTs pounded on the door. They are currently being sued. Alright, I made that up ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/104 "2005-02-05T02:59:54Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > I have to side with the old woman here. I’m a very anxious and at times paranoid person and if this happened to me I could easily see myself totally flipping out, possibly enough to have to go to the emergency room, depending on circumstances. $900 would also set me back A LOT, that is two months’ pay at the job I’m currently working. So these girls’ random act of kindness would have been devastating for me. They offered an apology and compensation. She refused it and insisted on going to court. That’s where she lost my sympathy: she was more concerned about “teaching the girls a lesson” than she was in being made whole, and that means she’s a vindictive, nasty bitch instead of a poor, undeserving victim. In Indiana, where I hail from, if you’re offered a settlement and your eventual award at trial is no better than the settlement, you have to pay defendant’s legal expenses from the day of the settlement forward. I hope a rule such as this applies to this woman; she deserves it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/105 "2005-02-05T03:03:42Z")
> [@Ocean City](#): > > Is there a lot of violent crime in Durango, Colorado? Well, there was this time a durango ate my baby… ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/106 "2005-02-05T03:12:33Z")
Well, I finally had to register when I saw this. My handle should actually be Cheez\_Whiz, but I got overexcited. I used to live in Durango, and worked at the local hardware store for a while. There is not much crime there, but it does seem to have more than its share of spacey weirdos. Most people use the Rocky Mountain Alarm System for their homes:a big dog and a shotgun. However, this woman is a vindictive bitch. I bet she moved there from some other place. If anyone wants to go and ring and run, or do a T.P. job, I volunteer to drive! ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/107 "2005-02-05T03:38:25Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > So far all I’ve had time to find out is that at least some judges in Colorado run for office. But I don’t know if it’s a yes-or-no thing or contested, or what. In general, Colorado judges are originally appointed. Then every few years their name is up in a retention election, which is a simple yes or no. It’s extremely rare to get kicked out - they have to do something simply atrocious - because it takes a great deal of trouble to get voters to remember a particular judge’s name among the huge list that’s on the ballot each time. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/108 "2005-02-05T03:49:23Z")
> [@Danalan](#): > > No way do we have all the facts here. The girls baked cookies, dropped them on the porch, rang the doorbell and left, and this caused unreasoning distress? Bullshit. > > I think these girls knocked on her door over, and over, and over again, because she wasn’t answering, and they could tell she was home. They were probably hiding in the bushes watching as people collected their gifts – part of the experience for them. If that’s the case, I can better understand this lady’s distress. That behavior rises to the level of harassment. Or…the girls went to the door bearing cookies, rang the doorbell, maybe more than once since they knew she was home, and when she didn’t answer, they left the cookies and the note on the porch where she could find them, and calmly walked away. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/109 "2005-02-05T03:51:18Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > In the Year 2000, a woman will win a suit for having an axiety attack against teen girls delivering cookies. > > The $900 award will be paid… > > IN COOKIES! > > In the Year 2000… > In the YEAR TWO THOU-SAAAND! Haha. Thanks for that. ---
**Author:** ![midget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@midget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/midget)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/110 "2005-02-05T04:17:05Z")
I wholeheartedly agree that this woman is a coldhearted bitch that deserves everything that’s coming to her, but there is one strange discrepancy that I can see: If they wanted to remain anonymous, why were they repeatedly banging on the door? Why not just ring the doorbell and leave? Why did they stick around to even hear her ask who it was? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/111 "2005-02-05T04:18:51Z")
I’ve been away from my computer for most of the evening and this might be a little bit late or moot at this point, but as the OP of the thread Can I ask that we not turn it into yet another pile-up on **Lib**? Especially when his intention was to express solidarity in this thread rather than orneriness. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/112 "2005-02-05T04:30:28Z")
Get it straight, people. The girls baked _cookies_, not tortes! (I wonder if they were wrapped in feasor paper?) ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/113 "2005-02-05T04:34:13Z")
> [@Cheez\_Whia](#): > > Well, I finally had to register when I saw this. My handle should actually be Cheez\_Whiz, but I got overexcited. You can email an admin and ask to have it changed to what you’d intended. Of course, if there’s already a Cheez\_Whiz Doper, you’re out of luck. > [@](#): > > However, this woman is a vindictive bitch. I bet she moved there from some other place. What, you don’t grow your own? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/114 "2005-02-05T04:41:53Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > You can email an admin and ask to have it changed to what you’d intended. No no no! Please don’t change it! It’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in days. “I got overexcited. Whia!” Welcome to the SDMB, **Cheez\_Whia**! ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/115 "2005-02-05T04:47:36Z")
> [@Green Bean](#): > > No no no! Please don’t change it! It’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in days. “I got overexcited. Whia!” > > Welcome to the SDMB, **Cheez\_Whia**! Well, yeh, I was thinking that, too, and although I’ve offered advice on how to change the moniker, I’m another vote for leaving it as is. Welcome, **Cheez\_Whia**! Long may you whiz! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/116 "2005-02-05T04:48:31Z")
count me as another Whia! fan. 🆒 But seriously, were there any sightings of Girl Scouts in the area? How does she deal with Witnesses? If the Dope actually helps out these girls, would it be publicity for the SD? Would Ed have to make a comment to the media? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/117 "2005-02-05T05:01:04Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > You, on the other hand, I love unconditionally and rather slavishly, and it takes a terrible martialling of will to contradict you in any way. 😉 Aw, shucks. :o **kittenblue** , read the article again-they ran when she said, “Who’s there?” And again, it sounds like they were ringing the doorbell, setting the cookies out and taking off. However, the woman severely overreacted and I have no sympathy for her. Just because I think the girls showed poor judgment in the way they went about delivering their gifts doesn’t mean I think the old bat deserves anything other than the finger. ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/118 "2005-02-05T05:07:10Z")
Like, wow, man. Like it used to be this place, like, you know, that was all sort of laid back like. 'Frinstance, the place we had-everyone around knew that the original plat was 15ft off. So that your driveway or your horse pasture fence might well be on the neighbor’s actual property. But nobody really cared until the out-of-state lawyer moved in and started making a ruckus. Like, don’t piss us off man. We turn from laid back whatever dudes into fire-brand brandishing rednecks. Live and let live. Didn’t you move here because it was laid-back? BTW, I haven’t lived there in almost 10 years, and it got all Aspenized in the meantime. And I guess Cheez\_Whia can stay and play awhile! ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/119 "2005-02-05T05:28:24Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > I agree, a letter of apology that _included_ a request for indemnification would be quite suspect. Of course I could be misinterpreting this myself, but it appears to me as if the apologies and the offer of compensation were completely separate things. According to the article, _the girls_ wrote letters of apology and _the families_ offered to pay her expenses. And the families asking to be indemnified from any future claims is both reasonable and standard in an offer of settlement. Offering to pay anything _at all_ should have been indicative of at least a certain degree of remorse and acceptance of responsibility. It seems to me only right that the girls (or their families) should pay the woman’s costs, because they _did_ do her harm, albeit accidentally. (Note that I said “only right,” not necessarily “legally required.”) However, the whole business with the rejected offer of settlement (with the indemnificiation clause) highlights one of the really rotten facts of modern life. People are afraid to step up and do the right thing without being indemnified in writing, **because they are afraid that the very act of attempting to make someone whole could be used against them in court.** This kind of goes along with the fact that medical doctors who express sorrow at a bad outcome (regardless of whether it was actually their fault) are much less likely to be sued, while most of them are afraid to say they are sorry because it implies an admission of fault. A sad and vicious circle. It does not carry any implication of insincerity on the part of the girls’ families, although the nervous neighbor might have inferred that it did. ## BTW – although I live in anything but a rural setting, I am not afraid of crime as a general rule. and I certainly don’t go to bed before 10:30 p.m. (1:30 a.m. is more like it.) Nonetheless, if someone were to ring my bell at 10:30 p.m. and leave something on my doorstep\*, it would undoubtedly scare the crap out of me, as I am a hermit and unused to visitors. Some of us are just wound a little tighter than others. - Actually, the cookies would be a particularly terrifying gift. Does no one remember the Unibooboo episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law? Cookie bouquet! Ayiiiiiiiii! ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/120 "2005-02-05T05:34:26Z")
Interesting – when I read the headline of the linked story, my initial reaction was “These nutty Atkins advocates have finally gone past all reason!” But Ms. Young obviously would have pursued the same legal course even if the girls had dropped off a tin of cocktail franks or Spam… Speaking of Wanita Renea (whose “creatively-spelled” first and middle name are likely to be featured in a future “I Pit All Those Kodys and Kaayleighs, Or At Least Their Parents, Who Think They’re So Clever” thread), **CynicalGabe** posted: > [@](#): > > In Russian, the proper term to describe her is “baba”. That about says it for me. To which **Guinastasia** replied: > [@](#): > > Actually, **baba** simply means “old lady”. I think you mean **baba yaga** , which in Russian/Slavic folklore is an old witch. No, I agree with **CynicalGabe**. My father (American-born, but of exclusively Czech ancestry back to at least his great-grandparents) uses _baba_ to mean, more or less, “an old, humorless, unattractive, shrewish busybody”. Not every elderly female merits the appellation, and I’ve heard it applied to women who were younger at the time than I (born in 1959) am now. When Dad tells me about a _baba_, I get a mental picture that’s probably much the same as the one **CynicalGabe** has when he ( **Gabe** ) hears the term. An old witch (in the literal sense of the phrase) would be _Baba Maritza_ (or however it’s spelled). But yeah, that Baba Yaga gets all the publicity… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405.md?page=7)