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Man Sues After Being Locked in Toilet
Sat Sep 27,12:52 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!



NORFOLK, Va. - A sudden, irresistible urge. A portable toilet. A confrontation with an angry construction worker. Now, a federal lawsuit.



William Tremmel, 68, of Altoona, Pa., needed to go. Badly. So he dashed to the nearest portable toilet on the Virginia Beach boardwalk.


Problem was, it belonged to construction workers for Weeks Marine, a company hired by the city to replenish the beach. And those workers were fed up with outsiders using the company can.


They retaliated, Tremmel claims in a lawsuit filed last month, by driving a bulldozer or front-end loader to the toilet and blocking the doorway, pinning him "inside the rank tomb."


Tremmel is seeking $100,000 for the Aug. 19, 2001, incident.


Weeks doesn't deny its employee blocked Tremmel in the toilet but says the worker was within his rights.


Tremmel says he was locked inside for 25 minutes. He claims members of his family shouted at the worker, but the man left and returned with his foreman, who chastised Tremmel through the closed door and accused him of trespassing.


Tremmel says the "abduction and false imprisonment" caused him "humiliation, mortification, shame, vilification, injury to his feelings, mental suffering, insult and indignity." Tremmel and his wife were celebrating their anniversary.


The lawsuit also says Tremmel has emphysema, was recovering from prostate surgery and had undergone double-bypass heart surgery.


Weeks Marine denied that the workers chastised Tremmel or that he was locked in the toilet for almost half an hour. Weeks says in court papers that its workers believed blocking Tremmel's exit was "reasonable" because he was "wrongfully using the port-o-let."


No hearing date has been set.

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I think I would have gone for more than $100k. If I was imprisoned and forced to breath my captors feces, and just for using the shitter? That's some pretty harsh punishment for trespassing. I don't think a jury in this country would have a problem getting me some $$ on that one.

In this sue happy society I would probably ask for a million and settle for half that. What would you do?

DEI37

Yeah, that's just silly. You're probably right. Even settle for $250k...that's a nice piece of cash.

__________________
Generally speaking, if you were to get what you really deserve, you might be unpleasantly surprised.

Lebell

Two wrongs were committed.

The first man tresspassed.

The second man falsely held him without calling the police.

I can actually see merit in this lawsuit.

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oldtimer

That's just sad when a man can't use a can in America.

__________________
Slowly but surely getting over the loss of TFP v. 3.0.
Where the hell am I?....
Showering once a month does not make you a better person.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kaos

That is pathetic...it's not like the guy was a young man in his 20's or some troublemaking teenager.

He was 68, and letting the old man use the bathroom would hardly be an inconvenience to the workers.

Now the lawsuit seems a bit frivoulous, and $100,000 is a bit much. Maybe $10,000 dollars would be more fair.

And before anyone says even ten thousand is too much, try to think what it would be like trapped with that horrible stench for half an hour. It's bad enough having to use one of those for 2 minutes to take a piss...

uncle phil

award: $1.00...next case...

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sixate

You fit right into this sue happy society.
This dude shouldn't have been there. End of story. He got what he deserved. I hate how people can do something they know is wrong and when they get busted and aren't treated with respect they think they are owed a million bucks. That guy's lucky I wasn't working there because I woulda dumped the the shit-house over with him in it.

Let's think about..... Why does he deserve money, and what harm was actually inflicted on him? Absolutely none!

phredgreen

let's see... old man, surgury on his prostate, breathing problems...


if he has to go, he <b>has</b> to go... this can just happened to be where he was. trapping him in a place like that would cause him to panic, inflaming his breathing problems and making it worse... add to that the taunts and yelling of some burly construction worker and i beleive this fella deserves at least what is asked for, if not more.

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tangledweb

Damn, Guys! Have a little sympathy for the old dude. At 68 years old and recovering from prostate surgery, he can't exactly pick when he wants to take a piss.

I had a prostate infection a few months back and it hurt like hell. I had to piss every few minutes and it sure as hell would have sent me over the edge to get locked in a stinking shitter while feeling that way.

I'm not saying he deserves 100K, but he deserves something and they deserve to be punished. Around here, the guys who locked him in would have gotten what they needed OUTSIDE the courtroom, no settlement necessary.

aoLhaTer

mental anguish, hes scarred for life

m5man

that is a crappy situation

mingusfingers

I enjoy funny stories.

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Still Looking

YourNeverThere

man, if I was that guy, I'd go back next time I had to do and do it right in front of the door, then, I'd go back and do it in front of the door everytime I had to go, for the rest of my life.

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The Above post is a direct quote from Shakespeare

numberfive

Ya know, this would've been quite funny if the guy wasn't 68 with all those health problems.

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P.S. Always remember: to forget is a form of suicide. (If I could only remember to forget myself.)

Buk

Norfolk Virginia

Yah, that makes sense...

Tirian

That reminds me of the time - my mom was in the car with me, and she really had to go. I spotted a portable right beside the road and pulled off. Turns out it was there because the union of some co. was striking and picketing the entrance to the site. They had the portable set up for the strikers. My mom goes running for the porta, and I head over to the workers to ask if it's OK.

Big burly lookin' fellow says it's cool to use the porta. Nice fellow actually.

I say the construction workers were acting like juvi assholes, and the man is justified in feeling injured. On the other hand does he deserve that much $$$. I'd rather see the workers charged with unlawful confinement, and pay dues to society for their actions.

preluder

those construction guys were bastards

fuzzix

err... $100,000 crazy. I think the guy should have been allowed to use the can, but $100,000 wtf? That's just sick.

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I'm most definately not 'lovin' it'.

splck

100k for 25 minutes?
/time to go looking for portable shitters

__________________
nice line eh?

oldtimer

Hahahahahahaha!

__________________
Slowly but surely getting over the loss of TFP v. 3.0.
Where the hell am I?....
Showering once a month does not make you a better person.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

numberfive

Haha, kinda Fear Factor-ish when you put it that way.

:P

__________________
P.S. Always remember: to forget is a form of suicide. (If I could only remember to forget myself.)

Journeyman

A 68 year old man who has undergone prostate surgery has an abundance of urine in his bladder. He *deserved* to relieve himself as soon as possible, and a construction worker (who is very likely without any advanced legal understanding of false and rightful imprisonment) decided that, because the old man was depositing a drop in the bucket, he deserved to be held against his will in a, what is it, 3.5 foot by 3.5 foot prison smelling of horrid hell for a half hour. As a young'un, a half hour isn't much, but to somebody who's close to the average age of passing on, it's almost a percentage of his life . At any rate, I'm wondering why there weren't any criminal prosecutions mentioned in the article, but since there weren't, civil suit *is* the right way to go, especially since the foreman didn't immediately order the release of the man.

fallen_angel

if you dont ask for permission you shouldnt get to freely use someone elses property. i wonder how much it costs to clean one of those out?

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Esoteric

Heh, that's pretty messed up.

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oldtimer

If memory serves me right, and I probably saw this on "Home Improvement" with Tim Taylor, but there should be a little hole on the side of the porter-potty where the sewage maintenance people can stick a hose in there and suck all the shit out. That's basically their definition of a "clean-up".

__________________
Slowly but surely getting over the loss of TFP v. 3.0.
Where the hell am I?....
Showering once a month does not make you a better person.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

tinger

First off this is all under the assumption that everything the old guy claims is true.

If the toilet was just sitting on a corner somewhere then I think the old guy going in and using it is fine. If he walked past a fence and into the construction site without alerting whomever it was in charge, then he's also in the wrong. I can understand the idea of "when you gotta go, you gotta go," but there's still some prodcedure to be followed. The construction workers did act like immature morons, but I think it's quite possible that both sides were in the wrong.

Stare At The Sun

What has society come to when an old man cant shit in a restroom, so what if its a companys, that was bastardly of that worker to do that to such an old dude...poor guy.

And anyone that says he got what he deserves needs to lighten the fuck up.

Miekle

Thats just sad the poor old man could have had something really wrong with him. What if he had asthma or something and passed out you never know. People get angery over the most stupid stuff. I could see if there was a sign up saying do not enter maby but still couldn;t see holding the man against his will. There are laws against that. He should definetly get what he asked for. If it was me that was trapped they would never have a place to pop a squat again. Or ever feel safe doing it.