Father In Cookie Lawsuit Gets Restraining Order
TRO Is Latest In Rural Saga Involving Cookies Left On Porch
POSTED: 8:50 am MST February 7, 2005
UPDATED: 8:47 pm MST February 7, 2005
The father of a Durango, Colo., teenager, who was sued for leaving cookies on a neighbor's porch, now has a restraining order against the husband of the woman who filed suit.
Richard Ostergaard obtained the temporary restraining order because he said Wanita Young's husband, Herb Young, continues to call his home and harass his family.
It's the latest installment in a rural soap opera that could be called "How The Cookie Crumbles."
Wanita Young won a $930 judgment against two girls who left cookies on her doorstep last summer, claiming the incident gave her an anxiety attack, which required medical care.
Taylor Ostergaard and Lindsey Zellitti's story has garnered nationwide attention and the girls were in New York City over the weekend, appearing on the weekend edition of ABC's "Good Morning America."
The incident began last July when Ostergaard and Zellitti decided to skip a local teen dance and bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies for their nine rural neighbors. They left the cookies, along with anonymous notes, on the front porches of their neighbors. They thought it would be a nice gesture and knocked on the doors before running away to make certain someone found the cookies before any wild animals did.
Wanita Young told the Durango Herald that the incident frightened her.
"We heard this horrible banging on the door, like someone was trying to break it down," she told the newspaper. "I ran upstairs and called out 'Who's there?' three or four times. But no one answered me and when I looked out the window, there weren't any vehicles in sight. But I could see the silhouette of someone on the other side of the window. I got really scared and called the sheriff's department."
Three sheriff's deputies arrived and found the cookies along with a note that read: "Have a great night. Love, The T and L Club." The "T and L Club" stood for Taylor and Lindsey.
The deputies didn't know what the note meant and suggested the Young stay in a motel that night. Young's husband was out of town so she took her 86-year-old mother and 19-year-old daughter to her sister's house in Farmington, N.M.
"Driving down there, I was throwing up and feeling a lot of pressure in my chest," she told the Herald. "I thought I might be having a heart attack."
Young, 49, went to a medical center emergency room the next morning and her hospital bill was more than $1,400. Doctors diagnosed her problem as an anxiety attack.
Young said she was assaulted by one of her neighbors 15 years ago and thought the cookie incident might be related to that.
Young is a cashier at Wal-Mart and has been director of the Durango Food Bank since 1990. Ostergaard is a senior at Durango High School, and Zellitti, is a freshman at Colby College in Kansas.
Denver radio station KOA raised more than $1,900 from listeners Friday to pay the court fine levied against the two girls. The remainder of the money will go to a charity dedicated to victims of the Columbine High School shootings.
Young said her phone hasn't stopped ringing and her life has been threatened.
"I'll probably have to move out of town," she said.
A hearing is scheduled on Feb. 17 to determine if the temporary restraining order against Herb Young should be made permanent.
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