Man sues after using glue-covered toilet

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Adam_MA

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Man sues after using glue-covered toilet
November 2, 2005

BOULDER, Colorado --A hardware retailer Home Depot has found itself in a sticky situation, defending a lawsuit filed by a man who claims the chain's Louisville store ignored his cries for help after he fell victim to a prank and was glued to a toilet seat.

Bob Dougherty, 57, of Nederland, said he became stuck to a bathroom toilet seat on which somebody had smeared glue on Oct. 30, 2003, and felt "tremendous panic" when he realized he was stuck.

"They left me there, going through all that stress," Dougherty told The (Boulder) Daily Camera. "They just let me rot."

His lawsuit, filed Friday said Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery at the time and thought he was having a heart attack. A store employee who heard him calling for help informed the head clerk via radio, but the head clerk "believed it to be a hoax," the lawsuit said.

Home Depot spokeswoman Kathryn Gallagher said she could not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit said after about 15 minutes, store officials called for an ambulance. Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat, and while wheeling a "frightened and humiliated" Dougherty out of the store, he passed out.

The lawsuit said the toilet seat separated from his skin, leaving abrasions.

"This is not Home Depot's fault," he said. "But I am blaming them for letting me hang in there and just ignoring me."
 
Ewwww....

If I were on that jury.... BIG time punitive damage award...

Funny, the jury is 10 men and 2 women! How do you think it will go?

Adam
 
His lawsuit, filed Friday said Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery at the time and thought he was having a heart attack. A store employee who heard him calling for help informed the head clerk via radio, but the head clerk "believed it to be a hoax," the lawsuit said.
Click to expand...

Anything that actually harms someone isn't really a prank, but is vandalism. Who ever did it probably had no idea who the victim would be and didn't care.

BUT, the store ignored his pleas for help and thus created immense liability for themselves. Since nobody went to investigate the problem think this thru. . .

- What if it were someone having a heart attack, diabetic shock, anaphylactic shock (bee sting or other shutting down their breathing) and they let the person suffer there with nobody checking it out for 15 minutes? Still a funny joke?

- Person above dies. Still funny?

- Person in original post has a heart attack from the stress of the situation. Still funny?

Do you see a problem here? I do!

They are liable for NOT checking out the situation and dealing with it as appropriate once they are notified of the problem.
 
I tend to agree with Len, except for one detail.

If you're under what's described as extreme stress, to the point that it causes a heart attack, just how accurate is your perception of time? Doesn't 2 minutes seem like an hour? Or am I to believe that his automatice reaction to this situation is to check his watch to see just how long it takes for help to arrive? Perhaps after discovering the real situation Home Depot management volunteered to him that they waited a full 15 minutes before investigating in order to get themselves sued and screwed?

None of this matter in the least, of course, since the guy suffered indignation and injuries and Home Depot has tons of money, so why shouldn't they give a bunch to him (and of course, to his laywer). On thie flip side, if the guy thinks that he was humiliated by being taken out on a stretcher with a toilet seat glued to his ass (under a blanket, of course), just wait until his local press runs the trial coverage for all his friends and neighbors, or the Enquirer gets some (real or manufactured) photos of him with his seat-covered ass clearly visible. [roll]

Ken
 
Ken, here is the key to what HD's liability should be:

A store employee who heard him calling for help informed the head clerk via radio, but the head clerk "believed it to be a hoax," the lawsuit said.
Click to expand...

If there was a 5-15 minute gap between the head clerk being notified and his taking any action, they are "toast" and they deserve it.
 
That's the plaintiff's allegation. My question is what's the evidence supporting it. Of course, as I posted originally, evidence probably won't matter much in this case.

Ken
 
If he can't prove that there was a delay in taking action, his case becomes unglued!

























[lol]
 
My thought is also this.

How many of you just sit down without looking at the toliet seat before you sit.

To make sure it's clean, that it's down, or just so you DO sit on it.


And I really would like to know what kind of glue it was.

If it was super glue, then it would be clear. But it would have to have been put down RIGHT before he sat down. As that dries pretty quickly.

If it was something like Gorilla Glue, then that stuff is brown. Same as an Epoxy. So you would have seen it before you would sit down.

Now, if there was glue, then when you sit down, and the seat is wet. Wouldn't someone stand up and think, "What in the hell did I just sit in?" Get up and check the seat?

The more that I think about this, the more I think that it was just to get some money.

But that's me.
 
I think I have done fairly well in my 22 years to NEVER use a public restroom except for urinating and of course the one time my father thought it would be funny to give me ex lax before school, then again only half off the accident occured on the toilet. ANYWAYS

Anything that would be able to bind so hard to him would have to have a fairly fast drying time. COnsider he didnt feel anything when sitting down, so it didn't have time to harden, so if it was a slow hardening glue then he would have been able to feel it more slippery then anything. If it was a fast drying glue the person would HAVE to have put it on RIGHT before this guy sat down. (Either way I can feel if I'm sitting on a hair and I don't consider my ass too sensitive.)

So then I have to assume it was a clear glue. Clear is more than often thin in texture and very fast drying. I would assume it was smeared on instead of a line put through. But if it was smeared it would have more surface area and dry a lot quicker.

My questions:

Exactly how long was he in that bathroom before he started calling for help?

Has anyone reviewed the tapes for another man going in before him?

Was there a container for the glue found? I doubt the perp would have taken an empty glue bottle with him seeing as how it was just mean to be a prank. Was anything found in the man that could have contained glue?

Was the water of the toilet tested for glue residue? To possibly see if he flushed any type of disposable container down the toilet.

Has there been a test of this specific glue to see drying times to compare a timeline that checks the mans story?

Does this man have any priors? It seems that this would be a sightly desperate attempt for a scam, and wouldn't suprise me if he was involved in anything else.

Has a personal check been ran on this man to see if he is in debt or owes anyone any money?

Has his house been searched to try to find an origional package the the brand of glue found on him? Has his own personal toilet been checked? Perps sometimes practice before the big scam.



Last but not least lets say this was completely innocent. Screw the heart attack, screw the embbarrasing ride on the stretcher. If my family jewels had got onto the seat and got stuck I can BET you that not only people in the store, but everyone in the county would hear my screams.



Oh yeah, and home depot employees are not trained in crisis intervention. I have been to larger retail stores and seen people be helped immediately. ( to be honest I've seen the customers running to the help first) But thats because larger retail stores train their employees that protocol is to not get involved, that before anything can be done a manager must be called, and that manager must call another manager. BEFORE the cops can even be called.

Not to mention personally if I heard some guy screaming that his ass was stuck to a toilet seat, I honestly have to say that I might have a laugh at his situation and most likely not want to enter that bathroom.
 
Grifter said:
Has anyone reviewed the tapes for another man going in before him?
Click to expand...

Uh... Grifter, you been watching too many CSI episodes? (yes, I know where you work!)

Seriously... a surveillance camera on a BATHROOM in a Home Depot store? You're kidding, right?
 
Loss prevention. Making sure customers aren't going into the bathroom with merchandise not to mention floors in and directly outside bathrooms are constantly washed meaning that a lot of people slip and fall in those locations, cameras can tell the difference of who meant to fall and who actually had an accident. I rule you!




NEXT!



[wink]


Oh yeah and CSI is about 15/16ths crap. But man is it a dream of mine, to work with nothing but gorgeous people hmmmmmmmm, hot boxum babes and no more balding nerds in lab coats.
 
Maybe someone (without his knowing) pulled down his pants while he was walking through the store, and applied contact cement to his ass cheeks. Then they whispered into his aging ear... "You need to use the toilet... Stall #3"

The perp then ran to stall #3 and anxiously waited for the poor gentleman who OBVIOUSLY just left the Mexican joint down the road to finish his "Business" plugged his nose, and entered stall #3.

He then proceeded to put a nice thin layer of contact cement covering the entire surface of the seat. He covered the entire surface, so that the glue placed in only strategic locations would not be detected.

The seat, having just been utilized to "dump some excess poundage" was nearing body temp. This in effect warmed the glue to a comfortable level so that when our poor "Mark" entered the bathroom without truly having to go and enter stall #3 for apparently no reason at all (remember the whispered suggestion the brain is a fragile thing) pulled his pants, now lightly sticking to his skin... Although weird in it's own right, our old timer has felt weirder things in his years. He sits upon the contact cement covered seat, making perfect surface-to-surface contact of the glued areas, therefore making instant adhesion of the glued surfaces!

It's elementary friends...

I can't believe no one else go this one first.

Adam
 
Grifter said:
LOh yeah and CSI is about 15/16ths crap. But man is it a dream of mine, to work with nothing but gorgeous people hmmmmmmmm, hot boxum babes and no more balding nerds in lab coats.
Click to expand...

Particularly CSI Miami, where you've not only got a hot babe, but one who's also a certified gun nut. [wink]

Let's not forget an essentially unlimited budget to do the most sophisticated tests (when there are simpler, cheaper, less interesting methods available) and the luxury of never working more than one or two cases at a time. I always get a real laugh out of both CSI and NUM3ERS. My undergraduate degree and a good chunk of my grad work were in Math, and I did a summer internship in a good crime lab back in the dark ages.

Ken
 
C-pher said:
SiameseRat said:
In a related case (sort of) This guy deserves money, forget the Home Depot guy. Warning- not for the faint of heart:

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/362414p-308439c.html
Click to expand...

Yea, I read about that as well. That's what I would call a bad day.

But he's the dumb ass for going back home with her and then falling asleep.
Click to expand...

After reading what she did to his ass, I'd say he's more of a numb ass than a dumb ass... [twisted]
 
SiameseRat said:
C-pher said:
SiameseRat said:
In a related case (sort of) This guy deserves money, forget the Home Depot guy. Warning- not for the faint of heart:

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/362414p-308439c.html
Click to expand...

Yea, I read about that as well. That's what I would call a bad day.

But he's the dumb ass for going back home with her and then falling asleep.
Click to expand...

After reading what she did to his ass, I'd say he's more of a numb ass than a dumb ass... [twisted]
Click to expand...

[shock]

Ok, that was funny.
 
"The lawsuit claims he suffered pain, humiliation and financial loss. It seeks $3 million. "

What financial loss???? Work? He's supposed to be recovering from by pass surgery!
 
Lynne said:
"The lawsuit claims he suffered pain, humiliation and financial loss. It seeks $3 million. "

What financial loss???? Work? He's supposed to be recovering from by pass surgery!
Click to expand...

There is a reason I referred to it as "nonsense", dear. [wink]
 
dwarven1 said:
Lynne said:
"The lawsuit claims he suffered pain, humiliation and financial loss. It seeks $3 million. "

What financial loss???? Work? He's supposed to be recovering from by pass surgery!
Click to expand...

There is a reason I referred to it as "nonsense", dear. [wink]
Click to expand...

Me thinks it falls more under the category of bull cookies than nonsense. :D
 
He wants his health back and to be normal, and to make sure that this never happens to anyone ever again....

And suing for $3M will accomplish that.....how? [roll]
 
HA! See, he has tried it before as explained in my previous post. Scam artists never cease to get dumber sometimes.


hmmmmm maybe I should get into some kind of work where I can investigate things. I'm pretty good at this stuff. Oh Wait!.....
 
Grifter said:
I should get into some kind of work where I can investigate things. I'm pretty good at this stuff. Oh Wait!.....
Click to expand...

Hey, Grifter... is it true that you're going to get your own TV show? CSI: Bangor? [wink]
 

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