Posted on 02/05/2005 10:24:01 AM PST by Pikamax
After a crumby ending, donated dough rolls in for 2 cookie deliverers By Electa Draper Denver Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 06, 2005 -
Durango - The Cookie Defense Fund has swelled to thousands of dollars.
Hundreds of Denver Post readers e-mailed and called to express "shock" and "outrage" that two 18-year-old Durango girls were sued for something they did last summer: drop off a plate of cookies and a paper heart on a neighbor's porch.
Taylor Ostergaard and Lindsey Zellitti lost in Small Claims Court in La Plata County on Thursday. Their impulse to bake cookies and treat neighbors by knocking, dropping off and running away went awry. One of nine neighbors who received a plate of cookies said the pounding on her door about 10:30 p.m. July 31 frightened her into an anxiety attack. A Durango judge awarded about $900 to the 49-year-old woman to cover some medical bills incurred when she ended up at the emergency room the next day.
If the people who called and wrote make good on their pledges, that $900 will be recovered many times over. Several people offered to personally cover the whole amount themselves.
The attention has been overwhelming.
"We just put them on the plane. Lindsey, Taylor and Jill (Taylor's mother) are headed to New York to do 'Good Morning America,"' Martha Zellitti, Lindsey's mom, said Friday night.
"They just thought it might be their one shot to tell the country they're still not afraid to do good deeds," Martha Zellitti said. "They'll just try to be more considerate in the future about the time."
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The families are also mulling over an offer from Jay Leno to do "The Tonight Show." It's not looking good for Leno, though, because Lindsey's mom wants her to get back to college in Kansas, where she is a freshman studying animal nutrition. Taylor is still in high school.
"We're just not the movie- star types," Martha Zellitti said.
But the story, which appeared Friday in The Denver Post, was linked to the Drudge Report and eBay. The tale was recounted on MSNBC ("Sugar and spice is not always nice," journalist Dan Abrams said) and other media.
The Otis Spunkmeyer cookie- making company is offering to hold an event in Durango to set things right.
"Cookies are the ultimate comfort food," Otis Spunkmeyer spokeswoman Liz Rayo said. "We don't want anyone sued over cookies. Cookies are good. This is an emotional issue for us."
They're not the only ones.
In e-mail after e-mail to The Post, from Hawaii to New York, and from Canada to Puerto Rico, people invoked with dismay the adage "No good deed goes unpunished."
Many observed that the unfortunate misunderstanding gave new meaning to the term "Cookie Monster."
One reader called the plaintiff in the case "a macaroon." Another called her a "cookie batterer."
The plaintiff could not be reached for comment Friday.
Martha Zellitti said the girls' families are not upset with the neighbor, or with the judge, who received many calls from people questioning his decision. Zellitti said the neighbor volunteers at the local food bank and does good deeds herself.
"And the judge made the best decision he could with the information he had," Zellitti said. "We just weren't prepared."
The judge awarded only $1 for damages, even though he could have given the plaintiff lost wages and the cost of new motion- sensor lights for her porch and more. She had itemized about $3,000 in all.
But political conservatives who read the story were convinced the judge must be a liberal activist intent on being politically correct. On the other hand, liberals said the judge and neighbor must be conservatives, who tend to see "terrorists behind every bush and on every porch," even in a quiet rural neighborhood just south of Durango.
The girls' defenders ran the gamut from executives and reverends to felons.
One e-mailer offered to set the girls up in their own cookie business.
There were other factions. A small but intense group were incensed that anyone would consider 10:30 p.m. "too late." It's really early, they said.
One church group wrote that members were very concerned because one of its favorite programs is for youths to ring doorbells, drop off treats and run. Another church group in South Carolina said it had young men in its congregation who would like to correspond with the Durango bakers.
"Lindsey's boyfriend wouldn't like that," Martha Zellitti said.
~smirk~
And you might want to look up the definition of "evil" and think about how words have meaning. If you're going to hang around FR that concept is necessary.
[What is the deal with that nutty lady? Sounds like she spent too much time watching TV soaps & horror flick.]
I don't feel any anger toward her, just pity.
She sounds just like the type of person (I think everybody knows at least one like this) who is so overwhelmed with the anxieties of being alive that that can only make it through the day by being paranoid.
I think it reflects very well on the character of Taylor and Lindsey and their families who are so generous in spirit as to still find good in this woman and speak up in support of her.
("Cookie Monster". That's a good one.)
:^)
She will get those girls and their little dog too......
My post is very plain. In addition to good vocabulary skills, comprehension is a must here on FR. I doubt you last long...pity.
Yeah, how many girls or boys even know how cookies are made? My parents taught us all to cook, clean, iron, etc. Now, our grandchildren are doing the same. We think our 16 year old college freshman will be a dessert chef since she is so good at that. She made my birthday cake last month and it was very very good. More power to the parents who are teaching their children how to cook.
The plaintiff seems more deserving of the "flaming bag of dog doo" porch treatment.
I was taught, growing up, calling after 9pm, or beating on doors after 9 was rude.
I know the girls had their heart in the right place, but the timing seemed a little off.
No, but don your flame suit for daring to mention it.
Um, if you don't want posts from someone, don't post to them. At no time did I strike up a conversation with the likes of you. You inserted yourself and decided to follow me around like a puppy.
Get lost.
Thanks for the thought. 8-)
Youth is wasted on the young. It was on me.
More power to the parents who are teaching their children how to cook.
Yes! Looks only last so long, but good cooking lasts a lifetime.
I'm inclined to agree with you both regarding the hour they chose to do their good deed.
The deed itself I am not questioning, just the time.....and of course the over-reaction of the neighbor.
The girls wanted to make their delivery after their chicken coop chores. They finished the chores at 9:00. They asked their parents if it was OK to run out cookies, and they said yes.
This information is available in prior threads.
APf
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