Good Intentions

The Question Fairy has an interesting story out of Denver of two girls who baked cookies for the neighbors and got a legal smackdown after one neighbor sued them. They delivered the cookies late at night, knocking on doors and leaving before the homeowners answered. One lady panicked at there being no one at the door and scared herself into a trip to the emergency room. She sued them and won.
The girls meant well, but their parents must not have told them to leave people the hell alone after 10:00 p.m.

I used to bake cookies for the neighbors too, but I delivered them during daylight and didn't knock on the door and run. I started it because of the neighborhood crazy lady who lived all alone. She took the first batch from me, but thereafter whenever I'd come to her door with cookies, she'd send me away. A fourteen-year-old's version of a basic sugar cookie recipe is probably not so hot, but I think it was the human contact and friendliness that bothered her. Maybe she thought I would poison her. Reading the article on the girls, I was trying to imagine how my crazy lady would have reacted to a late-night knock on the door. No doubt she would have found it upsetting. Maybe she would have freaked.

The girls did show poor judgement, but I do think the Denver lady should have accepted payment of her hospital bill from the families of the girls and left it at that. Instead she took them to court for payment, which she won. She also sued them for damages. She won that too, but the judge awarded her exactly $1.00, because at that point she was just being nasty.