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A Man Sues Home Depot Because He Was Glued To Toilet Seat

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BOULDER, Colo. - Home Depot was sued by a shopper who claims he got stuck to a restroom toilet seat because a prankster had smeared it with glue.

 

Bob Dougherty, 57, accused employees of ignoring his cries for help for about 15 minutes because they thought he was kidding.

 

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

 

The lawsuit, filed Friday, said Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery and thought he was having a heart attack when he got stuck at the Louisville store on the day before Halloween 2003. A store employee who heard him calling for help informed the head clerk by 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 store officials called for an ambulance after about 15 minutes. Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat, and as they wheeled the "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."

 

best thing I've heard all day!! :blush:

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Oh the poor man!

 

I got stuck in a toilet once...nah, ok, I wont go there! Not appropriate.

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I think that man could have done that to himself and is trying to sue just for the money like the woman who put the finger in the Wendy's chili and tried to blame the store for it. There are just too many suspicious questions

 

1. Why didn't he watch what he was sitting on, especially in a public restroom?

2. How could the glue still be wet enough for him to be stuck?

3. How did he not feel it when he sat down?

 

I don't know about this guy :blush:

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Yes, I hard time understanding the sitting on a public toilet seat but sometimes I guess you just gotta do it.

 

However, this article didn't include the part about him just recently having been in the hospital and was terrified he was having a stroke.

 

Employees should not ignore a person calling for help - you should always err on the side of caution if you're going to err.

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I think that man could have done that to himself and is trying to sue just for the money like the woman who put the finger in the Wendy's chili and tried to blame the store for it. There are just too many suspicious questions

 

1. Why didn't he watch what he was sitting on, especially in a public restroom?

2. How could the glue still be wet enough for him to be stuck?

3. How did he not feel it when he sat down?

 

I don't know about this guy :blush:

1. He must have to go badly enough and didn't bother to look.

 

2. There are some glues that have dry before you can use. Hense the reason why he didn't feel it when he first sat down.

 

3. If the glue was dry it would have same temp as the sit.

 

The reason why he is sueing was that the employees ignored him for 15 minutes. He thought he was having heart attack. This is not funny at all. When anyone who is calling out for help should not have to wait 15 minutes before anyone checks out if there its real or not. What if he had heart attack on the toliet? Or something even worse, he dead on the toliet because someone though he was pulling a hoax. The empoyees may or may not put the glue on the toliet sit, but they should not have ignored him that amount of time.

 

Here is article from Fox News.

 

When You Gotta Go, You Can't

Thursday, November 03, 2005

 

Some guys just can't get off the pot — literally.

 

Bob Dougherty, 57, has sued a Home Depot (search) in Louisville, Colo., saying he got stuck to a toilet seat in the restroom there after a Halloween jokester rubbed glue on it, according to The (Boulder) Daily Camera.

 

In the suit, Dougherty claims employees ignored his yells for help for at least 15 minutes — thinking the whole thing was some kind of hoax.

 

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

 

Filed on Friday, the lawsuit says Dougherty had been recovering from six-way heart bypass surgery when he was shopping in the store the day before Halloween 2003.

 

He thought he was having a heart attack when he got stuck to the can and took three nitroglycerin pills.

 

An employee eventually heard the super-glued shopper calling for help and let the head clerk know about the situation via radio.

 

The head clerk didn't act right away because he "believed it to be a hoax," Dougherty's statement says.

 

Kathryn Gallagher, Home Depot public relations manager, told The Daily Camera she couldn't comment on pending litigation.

 

After at least 15 minutes more, store officials finally called for an ambulance, the suit says.

 

Boulder County Paramedics (search) unbolted the seat and, while wheeling the "frightened and humiliated" man from the store, he passed out.

 

The paramedics rushed to get Dougherty on his back, and the toilet seat separated from his skin, leaving abrasions, the lawsuit says.

 

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

 

Dougherty's lawyer, Mark Cohen, said the store offered a measly $2,000 to settle the sticky situation.

 

"That was insulting," he told The Daily Camera.

 

The lawsuit says three suspicious juveniles were spotted inside the store, and coins were found glued to the sidewalk just before Dougherty got glued to the john.

Edited by Odie

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one piece of advice toilet seat cover. most places have the little paper circle things to place on the seat.

 

it is sad to think that workers would be so careless. but anymore i'm not surprised. i've been nice to workers before and they haven't been the kindest to deal with. i can understand the man's frustrations.

 

tm

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Somethings you can buy with Mastercard somethings are priceless, and that is one of them. And didn't he use that santi-wipe stuff on the seat before he sat down in a public bathroom, talk about a quick way to get stds

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Somethings you can buy with Mastercard somethings are priceless, and that is one of them. And didn't he use that santi-wipe stuff on the seat before he sat down in a public bathroom, talk about a quick way to get stds

 

I don't think he was thinking that he would glued to a toliet seat. I won't! Getting stds from a toliet is very low, unless the person up sore. Some people my getting sick from grams on the sit, even that is low.

Edited by Odie

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Can you imagine having to be escorted from the store with a toilet seat attached to your a$$? Theres a story he won't be telling his grandkids!..... :drool:

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Perfect example of one-upmanship. In my day, we used to use toothpaste. Oh, this one time, our friend brushed it in carefully to make it look natural. The poor girl didn't know what was in store for her.

 

 

We always put saran wrap underneath.

 

Still do with certain relatives on summer vacation actually. :drool:

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I feel so angry at those employees ignoring him! I always help customers trying to distract my attention or calling, or even look like they need assistance. Haven't they ever thought he could have been elderly or partly disabled? Or even had an operation or something?

 

Those employees have just lost loads of cutomers, do they realise that? :drool:

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Two bucks says that he wasn't a Star Trek fan and now got his just to him... I bet he had to boldly go where no one has gone before... aisle 5.

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I feel so angry at those employees ignoring him

 

I think hes making too big a deal about this part because he wants a payday. By his own admission, he was "ignored" for no more than 15 minutes. Its not like he was in there for hours. Afterall, it was Halloween so everyone was on the lookout for pranks. It appears that as soon as store personnel realized he was legit, he got the help he needed.

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I feel so angry at those employees ignoring him

 

I think hes making too big a deal about this part because he wants a payday. By his own admission, he was "ignored" for no more than 15 minutes. Its not like he was in there for hours. Afterall, it was Halloween so everyone was on the lookout for pranks. It appears that as soon as store personnel realized he was legit, he got the help he needed.

 

At that time he thought he was having a heart attack. If he was having a heart attack those 15 minutes could have caused premit damage or kill him. I don't think he his making big. I believe the news networks are the ones that are making a big deal of it. He should not have to wait for 15 minutes to get help no matter if it was Halloween.

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At that time he thought he was having a heart attack

 

He SAID he thought he was having a heart attack. I'm sure he put that in for dramatic effect for his frivolous lawsuit.

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It doesn't matter if it was Halloween or not no one who's cry/yelling for help should have to wait 15 minutes to make sure if its not prank. He does have a heart problems in which he just recovering from six-way heart bypass surgery. I've seen people in very stressful think that they are having a heart attack, but they where not. It doesn't change anything from what the employees respond from a person who yelling out for help.

 

I will say this again no should have to wait to get help when they need it.

Edited by Odie

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I have to agree with Odie - fifteen minutes might as well be eternity to someone in a real emergency. You don't dismiss a cry for help - the consequences of being wrong are too severe (death) compared to being right (annoyance & waste of time). If this makes companies re-evaluate how they handle customers then it was worth it.

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Doubts Raised About Toilet Seat Glue Case

Town Official Says Plaintiff Lodged a Similar Claim

 

 

 

AP

Bob Dougherty, right, has sued Home Depot for $3 million over the alleged prank.

 

Talk About It: Post Thoughts

 

 

DENVER (Nov. 9) - A man who sued Home Depot last month claiming a prank left him glued to a toilet seat made a similar allegation about another restroom more than a year ago, an official told a newspaper.

 

Bob Dougherty's lawsuit alleges employees at the store ignored his pleas for help on the day before Halloween 2003 because they thought he was kidding.

 

But Ron Trzepacz, former director of operations for the town of Nederland, where Dougherty lives, told the Rocky Mountain News in Tuesday's editions that Dougherty told him in the summer of 2004 he was glued to a toilet seat in the town's visitor center but pulled himself free.

 

Trzepacz told the paper he inspected the bathroom and found "no indication that anything had been on the toilet seat." No police report was filed, he said.

 

Dougherty's lawyer, Mark Cohen, denied his client made such a claim and said Dougherty is willing to take a polygraph test.

 

"The allegation doesn't make any sense," Cohen told The Associated Press Tuesday.

 

Neither Trzepacz nor the Nederland town administrator immediately returned a call from the AP. Nederland is about 45 miles northwest of Denver.

 

Dougherty's lawsuit, filed Oct. 28, said officials at the store in Louisville called for an ambulance after he had been stuck for about 15 minutes. Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat, which separated from his skin, leaving abrasions, according to the suit.

 

The lawsuit also said Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery and thought he was having a heart attack when he got stuck.

 

The lawsuit claims he suffered pain, humiliation and financial loss. It seeks $3 million.

 

 

11-09-05 03:34 EST

 

 

and NOW the REAL truth is beginning to emerge..... :laugh:

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Hmmm....

 

I will wait and see where this will go. It does bring new light to the sitution.

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I think it's interesting how everyone sided with the guy and no one with the employees just because he said he had a problem and he said no one helped him. That's like a customer saying to me that I showed an attitude because she wanted a house charger for a Game Boy Advance and she didn't have the Game Boy, or box, or receipt, she thought we should just give it to her. Also, to get my attention, she stood at the end of the aisle and yelled "Hey, I want some help". What happened to thinking about all the angles.

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Real truth Kor? There is no documentation of this alleged prior comment. Interesting two people have made statements - one saying he was glued to a toilet seat (and there was actual evidence that he was) and another saying this man has done this before (although no claim was filed so no evidence other than this guy's word). So why is one persons statement automatically true and the other automatically false? And I'm not sure any of us want to live in a world where we automatically become "guilty" just because someone says we are.

 

MrPsychic - there's all the difference in the world between not giving someone a refund without proper documentation and not calling for assistance when someone is screaming for help.

 

And the point is - the employees were wrong to ignore a call for help - even if the guy does prove to be complicent in fraud - it was still wrong to ignore someone calling for help. You don't know if a scream is real or not and when you don't know you should treat everything as potentially real because the consequences of guessing wrong can be deadly. In a real emergency a person would probably be dead in 15 minutes. :laugh:

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My problem was that he had waited 15 minutes. If he did this to himself he would have caught and chargers could have been pressed against him. Since the employees waited to see if it was a prank they allowed the chance for the lawsuit. It would have taken a few minutes to see if he was all right or not.

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We'll see how this plays out. I'm starting to think that this guy is like the woman who put the finger in the chili at Wendy's. I may be wrong, but lets see what happens. Plus, check out this guy's picture. I know we shouldn't judge people on their appearance but the expression on this guy's face just oozes shadiness.

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