Prank Costs Airline a Lawsuit

Court News Service ^ | Aug 28 2012 | CAMERON LANGFORD

[scottjewell]

HOUSTON (CN) - A gay couple claims in court that Continental Airlines workers humiliated them by taking a dildo from their baggage and taping it outside the bag for everyone in baggage claim to see.

Christopher Bridgeman and Martin Borger sued United Continental Holdings and Continental Airlines in Harris County Court.

The men say they arrived in Houston from Costa Rica, retrieved their undisturbed checked luggage and after going through Customs rechecked their bags for a flight to Norfolk, Va.

"Upon arriving in Norfolk, plaintiffs exited the aircraft and went to the baggage claim area," the complaint states. "Plaintiffs' bags were sent to the baggage carousel where plaintiffs discovered, to their horror, that a private sex toy had been removed from one of their bags, covered in a greasy foul-smelling substance and taped prominently to the top of their bag.

"Plaintiffs experienced extreme shock and horror when they observed the above-described bag and when observing the surprised and/or laughing faces of numerous onlookers in the baggage claim area.

"Plaintiffs were experiencing such a high degree of shock and embarrassment that they felt compelled to call two friends to come to the airport to assist them.

"Fortunately, the friends arrived and were able to assist plaintiffs out of the airport and to their home, but by that time the damage had already been done, and plaintiffs had suffered severe emotional trauma."

The men claim the baggage handlers probably pulled the prank "because of the fact that the sex toy was contained in the bag of a male, and because the employee(s) responsible knew that the bag belonged to a male due to the name tag attached to the bag and the male clothing contained in the bag."

They seek punitive damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and negligence.

They are represented Harry Scarborough.

United and Continental Airlines merged in May 2010 to form one of the world's largest airlines.

[scottjewell]

Interesting, and thanks for the sleuthing. When did the incident occur? And is Continental certain it was not a hoax, or are they just trying to get rid of them now? It just sounds so lurid and silly; cannot imagine what the baggage handlers thought would be the outcome.

[a fool in paradise]

Can you imagine if these guys ever faced any real adversity? Bring the smelling salts....

You mean poppers.

Time and the Wall Street Journal reported that the popper fad began among homosexual men as a way to enhance sexual pleasure, but "quickly spread to avant-garde heterosexuals" as a result of aggressive marketing. A series of interviews conducted in the late 1970s revealed a wide spectrum of users, including construction workers, a "trendy East Side NYC couple" at a "chic NYC nightclub", a Los Angeles businesswoman "in the middle of a particularly hectic public-relations job" (who confided to the reporter that "I could really use a popper now"), and frenetic disco dancers amid "flashing strobe lights and the pulsating beat of music in discos across the country."[14]

User surveys are hard to come by, but a 1988 study found that 69% of men who had sex with men in the Baltimore/Washington DC area reported they had used poppers, with 21% having done so in the prior year.

...Both survey groups used poppers to "get high," but the men who had sex with men were more likely to use them during sex. It was reported that this group reduced usage following the AIDS epidemic, while the drug-users had not.[15] A 1987 study commissioned by the US Senate and conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services found that less than 3% of the overall population had ever used poppers.

[CharlesWayneCT]

A picture of the offending bag/sex toy:

Some obvious points

First, Eww. Second, that's not taped on the bag, it is IN the bag. The zipper they claimed was not broken, but clearly it is unzipped in BOTH directions, so it does appear the zipper popped open. If the sex toy was at the top of the luggage (who knows, maybe they needed to use it right before checking their luggage), it might have just come out during transport.

If the zipper broke, then the airline just taped their bag as best they could. And maybe they are lying about the "substance", and it was just the lubricant they used when they used the thing, and it smelled because it had then been stuck in baggage for hours on end, and maybe sat out in the heat.

And of course, a bag on a bed doesn't prove anything. I'm still looking for a contemporaneous report of the incident in a real news outlet.

Lastly, I found the "original" story at the blog I cited above. In that earlier post, I noted the blogger said he knew them well. But in the first story, it says they "contacted him" -- so he's only known them since the incident, it appears.

He makes this hilarious claim:

The image above shows what this couple's bag looked like as it circulated around the luggage carousel before an entire plane load of travelers in their conservative home city's airport.

Norfolk is partly a military city, but it is hardly the bastion of "conservative values". It's a city, and has a lot of liberals. Of course, a lot of them are black, and black people don't really fall into line with other liberals on the gay sex thing -- maybe because they know what it is liked to take it in the, well, you know what.

[a fool in paradise]

I wonder if one of the friends they called to pick them up was their original planned ride anyway.

Who would leave their car at the airport another day because they were “so overcome with trauma it’s worth the gas and additional day’s payment...”?

[Lady Jag]

[a fool in paradise]

TSA can open your bags, so there goes the tampering charge.

[commish]

Ok IF -- and that is big fat IF!!! -- this really happened i bet the 'humiliation and embarrassment' from the other passengers 'laughing/reactions/etc' had absolutely nothing to do with the actual dildo being taped to the bag and EVERYTHING to do with the Nancy Boys reaction to it.

I have this mental picture of a limp wrist lifting the bag, seeing the 'prank', followed by an ear piercing screech and much jumping up and down with histrionics and fanning of hands and tears ..... with all the onlookers actually laughing at the display of fairyism instead of the actual sight of the object.

[scottjewell]

Thank you for that pic and info! Bravo to your investigative powers.... Hmmm, the plot thickens, as it were, and I wonder now if it wasn’t either a. the couple’s own paranoia or b. their litigation-happy agenda which made more of this incident than it really was. If so, I hope Continental pays out nothing to them.

[a fool in paradise]

Send the culprits to a penal colony.

[scottjewell]

And now that CharlesWayneCT has posted #83, I am beginning to wonder if any foul play indeed actually occurred at all.

[scottjewell]

My thoughts exactly! See post #83, it may have been legit, with no real intent and they themselves have paranoia about their dildo. Grrrrrr

[a fool in paradise]

Did TSA put a letter/notice in your baggage when they opened it? They did (at least once) when they opened mine.

I didn’t notice anything missing.

And yes, even if the first year, TSA agents were busted stealing things from peoples’ bags.

[scottjewell]

Good thinking, and good point.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Here's another story of a dildo, this time not a gay person so probably no emotional trauma:

:

NEWARK, N.J. - A baggage screener who left a note saying "Get your freak on girl" inside a woman's suitcase that contained a sex toy will be fired, the federal Transportation Security Administration said Friday.

[wbill]

Imagine people being unable to function after an embarrassment and not even being able to walk. Is this not absurd?

Yeah, I was amarginally sympathetic until I read that part.

I don't necessarily agree with the couple's lifestyle. However, that doesn't give goons a license to mess with them. And....I'd not put it past the TSA goons to pull a prank like this (though, I'd imagine they'd be on camera somewhere, and/or who handled the luggage would be pretty easy to track.....).

But when I got to the "We were so overcome by embarrassment, fetch me to my fainting couch" .... someone is just looking to get paid, sez me.

[scottjewell]

Hmm, so it can indeed occur, unless this was also a failed attempt for a lawsuit (doubtful)-thanks, going to link...

[vette6387]

“I agree that the TSA worker or airline employee who did this should be fired—assuming the event took place as reported, which is always a legitimate question in these situations. It would not astonish me if I were to learn that the passengers did this themselves.”

Exactly! And just how do you prove that any TSA or Airline employee was responsible? I mean how would anyone have known the to whom an individual bag belonged and their sexual “preferences.” Probably just more gay extortion.

I smell a rat, or maybe a dirty dilldoe!

[CharlesWayneCT]

In fact, here is what that woman said:

Her initial interpretation: "Total violation of privacy, wildly inappropriate and clearly not ok, but I also just died laughing in my hotel room."

[MrB]

This isn't funny at all! Not worth laughing a bit! The perps should be fired! The airline shut down! Not ONE BIT FUNNY I TELL YOU!

[a fool in paradise]

The picture of the damage luggage definitely sheds light on the case.

And if they were so traumatized by people seeing it, posting it on the internets won’t ADD to that trauma?