- DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters)
- A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the
distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned
with paper hearts.
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- The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court
costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining
that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked
on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital
the next day.
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- Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte,
18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by
La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday.
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- The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of
their rural Colorado neighbors on July 31 and dropped off small batches
on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message:
"Have a great night."
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- The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the
girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a
dance where there might be cursing and drinking.
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- It reported that six neighbors wrote letters entered
as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies.
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- But Young said she was frightened because the two had
knocked on her door at about 10:30 p.m. and run off after leaving the cookies.
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- She went to a hospital emergency room the next day, fearing
that she had suffered a heart attack, court records said.
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- The judge awarded Young her medical costs, but did not
award punitive damages. He said he did not think the girls had acted maliciously
but that 10:30 was fairly late at night for them to be out.
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