Woman Sues DIP Storage Facility Over Bizarre Ordeal (Locked In Box For 63 Days)

Mobile Register ^ | 9-26-2003 | Gary McElroy

[Pagey]

Creditors had foreclosed on her home and tossed her possessions into the street

Let me get this straight---moved her furniture into a storage facility, had food,juices,bit of food, couch, radio----(she literally had given up on herself) someone finally heard a radio on 63 days later and she's suing them?Boy, that really takes brass ones. I can't wait to hear how the Alabama jury decides.

[blam]

"I can't wait to hear how the Alabama jury decides."

I don't think we've heard the whole story yet. I will keep FReepers advised of the outcome.

[Pagey]

I was just thinking, if all of your possessions are on the curb,someone helped you move them to a storage facility.A couch doesn't get in there on your back. Someone,relative or friend, knew she was there.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I would also think that if I disappeared someone would check to see if I had taken any belongings with me.

In other words they would have checked the storage unit.

Something about this does smell. Maybe she was in a severe case of depression and when the door closed she decided to stay where it was nice, safe and dark for a while always thinking that when the food ran out she would just bang on the door until someone let her out. But then things got out of hand.

[jocon307]

Thanks for your reply, I've got to file this in the "learn something new everyday" folder.

And what is it with the legumes? Always recommended, never actually consumed, legumes.

[Bogey78O]

It's a valid question. If you find out that there's somebody locked in your bedroom closet for a onth aren't you going to ask why they never tried to contact you?

[Ronaldus Magnus]

The question may have some validity from an intellectual curiosity standpoint, but it will generally have no bearing what so ever in a civil case like this one. If your are discovered to have locked someone in your closet for a month, you will almost certainly be found to have a definite civil and criminal liability regardless or your intent or their supposed efforts to contact you.

[sadimgnik]

(LDS Year's worth of food story)
Thanks for your reply, I've got to file this in the "learn something new everyday" folder.

---

Yeah, me too.

And what's more, there was a cool link at the bottom of the article to a backyard gardening / vege gardening site, which looks very useful.

That's what I love about the Just Damn! list.

I come for the entertainment, but stay for the education

:-)

Sadim

[PropheticZero]

Quick/Fairly Cheap Solution to cover yourself.

Use handle key locked garage doors, with the handle on the inside that you can use to open it.

Also, install one of those doorbells that glows in the dark, that wired to go off at the guard shack, or something.

You'd think the handle on the inside would take care of it, but I don't know what this does to the security of the unit.

Also do these units have lights in them? Light switches? Probably wouldn't be that hard to determine if a light was turned on or not. Small plastic panel set into the unit.

And I'm sure theres a hundred other possible ideas.

[TexasCajun]

I'm sure her lease stated the unit was for storage, not living. ...for what-ever good that will be in court.

[Bikers4Bush]

It gets worse. She was awarded $100,000 yesterday I believe.

This country is friggin' nuts and getting worse by the hour.

[Cowboy Bob]

It was a good thing it wasn't a U-HAUL storage unit. They would have charged her extra for being in there. Then if she complained, they would have offered her $100 in VIP cash!

[N3WBI3]

THrown out of her home? she was probably living in the unit, and I wonder if that violated the lease..

[humancare]

yes, there is a much bigger story here! this is not as cut and dry as been presented. the whole story will make you cry and anger you. this woman is a victim of lawyers and some cub reporter trying to make a name for themselves. she was not mentally ill. that fact had been proven over and over. she is a free thinker and has been shoved a label because of her political stance. wait on the WHOLE TRUTH.

[humancare]

yes, there is a much bigger story here! this is not as cut and dry as been presented. the whole story will make you cry and anger you. this woman is a victim of lawyers and some cub reporter trying to make a name for themselves. she was not mentally ill. that fact had been proven over and over. she is a free thinker and has been shoved a label because of her political stance. wait on the WHOLE TRUTH.

[heynie]

That us just nasty, girl you really nead to trim those claws, which i must say are located on those nasty paws

[heynie]

I totally agree with you, I was in that situation for two months I would probably loose that much too...

[JZoback]

Court awards $100,000 to Alabama woman who spent 63 days trapped in a storage locker - Law & Justice; Wanda Hudson wins suit against Parkway Storage
Jet, Oct 20, 2003

A jury has awarded $100,000 to an Alabama woman who spent over two months trapped in a storage facility after she was locked in her rented storage unit.

Wanda Hudson, 44, had originally sought $10 million from Parkway Storage in her lawsuit, claiming negligence on the part of the company that rented her a unit in early October 2001.

Hudson testified in Mobile County Circuit Court that creditors had foreclosed on her home and tossed her possessions into the street, forcing her to rent an enclosure measuring 30 feet by 10 feet from Parkway. She paid a month's rent, then moved her furniture and other belongings inside, her attorney Mallory Mantiply said.

On Nov. 7, 2001, while on a security check, the facility's manager found Hudson's storage unit unlocked and partially open, and locked it, Mantiply said.

When she realized she was locked inside, Hudson testified, "It was just total panic. I tried to breathe. I had to believe I was not stuck inside."

Two months later, on Jan. 9, 2002, a customer using a nearby unit heard sounds coming from unit 611. It was Hudson, who apparently had survived on juice and canned foods, but lost 65 pounds while in the unit. Hudson weighed 85 pounds when she was admitted to the hospital, according to medical records.

Her condition when discovered in the unit was of "advanced starvation, unusual to find in medical circumstances in America today," said Dr. William Asher, who studied her case at the hospital.

Hudson was vague about why she was in the storage unit so late on Nov. 7, and denied she heard the metal door close. Parkway's attorney, Burt Taylor, suggested she was sleeping and, furthermore, that she had been living in the unit. She denied Taylor's supposition.

The company argued that during those two months that Hudson claims to have been locked in the unit, customers renting nearby units never heard her trying to get help.

Hudson testified that wasn't because she didn't yell out. She claimed that more than one person heard her screams but did not respond.

Jurors later yielded a $100,000 verdict in favor of Hudson.COPYRIGHT 2003 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

[MississippiMan]

Why did she not scream when the door first rolled down?

Bingo. There's the question no one's asking. Forget the two months in which no one heard a sound; why the heck didn't she give a yell right then? Seems pretty obvious to me that she was living there, and was probably asleep...or...this whole thing was a planned lawsuit from the get-go.

MM

[blam]

"Court awards $100,000 to Alabama woman who spent 63 days trapped in a storage locker - Law & Justice; Wanda Hudson wins suit against Parkway Storage"

Unbelieveable, huh?