Glued to a Toilet Seat... I'm Suing!!
 

Glued to toilet, man sues Home Depot
Humiliating? My sense of humor has pretty much evaporated these days, but even I'd find this funny if it happened to me.. Ok, maybe the next day I'd think it was funny... but suiing?

and this is the perfect example of why stores shouldn't offer public restrooms to customers :)

... if i gotta sit in a public facility i always run a bit of tp around the seat to catch in drips that may be on the seat... this guy shoulda done the same...

but damn thats pretty funny...he was there for 15 minutes... thats not very long...
makes it sound like he was there over night or something...

In todays society, the lawsuit is not a suprise. Home Depot will most likely settle out of court just to get this over with and another frivolous lawsuit will prevail. I wonder why he didn't name the maker of the seat for not having a warning notice that applying glue to the seat will make it sticky.

I don't usually sit on the toilet seat in a public facility if I can help it, and if I must I always wipe with some toilet paper first, then place some on the seat before sitting on it.

I do think though that the guy is right to be upset for no-one helping him in his distress, also because he had just had major surgery. Maybe if his motives for suing were not the pay-out, it would be a more worthy suit.

Practical jokes should not include physical harm. And ignoring a person who is crying for help for 15 minutes is completely unacceptable. I agree with him.
What other way can you fight back against a corporation? The only "stick" is money.

Would this guy also sue if he was denied access to an employees only restroom? Probably.

Sometimes, the company just can't win.

If Home Depot (and by that I mean one of its employees, on duty) was to have smeared the glue, then go ahead and sue. But for not coming to get you for 15 minutes? Suck it up, Buttercup.

That's complete bullshit to just let him sit there... I don't care if the head cashier DID think it was a hoax.

By god if that happened to me, I'd sue, too!

Fight back against what?

I sympathize with the guy for having to sit on a public toilet for all of 15 minutes and then wheeled out, ass stuck to seat, but I have to wonder exactly how Home Depot is at fault. Home Depot must pay for this guy's 'embarassment?' :confused:

While I'd certainly be pissed, and I agree that practical jokes should never include physical harm, Home Depot is NOT at fault. I really doubt that anyone's job description includes helping patrons in their bathroom duties. If I were a cashier and I heard "help" from the bathroom I'd probably think it was someone playing a practical joke on ME. Honestly tell me that as a cashier at a business if you heard "uuuunnnn hellllp!!" from the bathroom you'd immediately stop checking people go out and see what was going on? Or would you wait a few minutes? 5 ? 10? They called the ambulance after 15, so that means the cashier waited less..

Absolutely I would have helped! I'm not saying I would have gone into the stall and tried to pull him off, but I would have asked what was going on and then let the customer know I was calling an ambulance.

And if it did turn out to be a hoax, at least I know I did my job. What is the harm in doing due diligence just in case something really was going on? It's not as if the head cashier would have been fired for taking action. In fact, I think she should be fired for her inaction... she just sounds lazy to me.

You overestimate most employers, especially minimum wage ones, I think.

He says in the article
I suppose suing a minimum wage employee wouldn't get you far, so you gotta go after the biggest purse.

A better solution would be to find the asshole who put glue there and do something appropriate with him. I'm not so sure this is Home Depot's lookout, other than perhaps that it's a good idea to inspect the public bathrooms every so often. Even then, once an hour is probably plenty. Every 30 minutes would be wonderful.

This guy... I dunno. I can't imagine sitting on a public toilet w/o looking at it first. Given his medical condition, could he have been more careful? Should he have had someone with him to help him out? If this was in a handicapped stall, does that make it worse? And to whom? I do see this as at least largely his own fault, for not doing due dilligence and inspecting the toilet seat before plopping down on it. It's kinda like women who complain a guy left the seat up, so it's the guy's fault that the woman fell in. Right.

What do you think HD should have done? Cameras? Microphones? I could see a pull-chain, perhaps. We've got those in our handicapped stalls at work. They even got used once. But if someone in a regular stall had a problem, and heart attacks aren't uncommon when straining on the pot, they'd be fucked.

Just because HD has cash is not, to me, enough of a reason to sue them for something which is quite arguably beyond their control. Honestly, the guy should have been watching out for his own ass.

I highly doubt that this man will win. 15 minutes is a very short time. I could understand if employees walked in the bathroom, talked to the man and then left him there. If I was an employee working that paticular day and an old man called out to me, wanting me to help free him from the toilet, I wouldn't have believed it! "I'm glued! Help me!" -Ha! I would have been laughing my ass off thinking he had lost his marbles. Too bad they can't catch the punks that did it. The Home Depot is not at fault. I doubt this case will last long.

glue? I'd be pissed off too. What type of glue was it? Could he have lost major amounts of skin in getting free, its possible? Gee sounds like a fun prank. What ever happend to vasline or honey? I don't think it is sue worthy, but if your HD and you have public washrooms you have to keep them safe. Still pretty hard to stop something like this, can be on patrol 24/7.

Anyway doubt he wins anything after saying "This is not Home Depot's fault,". good one buddy, way to lose the case even before it starts!

Yeah, I seen that... I guess I just don't understand how he can blame Home Depot for this. It just seems a bit silly.

Legally, what kind of case can he have?

This is the part that might win this (ridiculous and quite humourous) case. The fact that they knew about it and didn't check.


[threadjack] You almost had me BigBen. I was curious as to why I saw my colours in a thread I never saw until today. And then I saw that my gray is different :D /threadjack

Ok, let's say you're the home depot employee. And let's say it's your typical home depot restroom--not a stall--a locked room with a single toilet. And as you pass by, you hear, "help help! i'm having a heart attack!" What do you do? Most likely, you run to the phone, call 911, or get a key to the restroom and open it up. Hoax or not, you had better do something, for the reasons you describe.

Now, let's change the situation a bit. As you pass by the bathroom door, you hear instead, "help help! i'm glued to the toilet seat and I don't know what to do!" Now what do you do? If I were in that situation, I'd think it was a hoax. I'd probably talk to the guy try to feel out the situation (figuratively). In any case, it's *NOT* an emergency, in any way, shape or form. Being glued to the toilet seat may really suck, but your airway, breathing, and circulation are not subject to any additional threat of compromise, whether or not you have had major surgery recently! If that were me on the toilet seat, I'd be telling the employee, "Man, I swear I'm not joking. Please help me," but would be very surprised if they immediately believed me or did anything without a little time passing. If I had had that major surgery recently, I'd probably be telling myself to stay calm and not to panic, because 1) there would be nothing to do but wait, and 2) my heart would probably be better off without the additional stress of panicing.

Finally, who's to blame for all this? THE IDIOT WHO PUT GLUE ON THE TOILET SEAT!! Why not put blame where blame is due?

I think that's the general consensus here. However, lots of frivolous lawsuits have ended in a corporation shelling out.

Can anyone say "HOLY SHIT, YOU MEAN THIS COFFEE IS HOT?!?"

:rolleyes: As Snopes mentions,
The enclosed link is long but well worth the read.

All I can say is if it happened to me, I'd be pissed as Hell being on there for 15 minutes while employees thought it was a joke. Even if 15 minutes doesn't seem long, it does when you are in a bad situation.

And then to add insult by wheeling him out through the store's main doors (that was the version I heard) and not at least threw the more private back doors, that seems a bit much also.

I think Home Depot's employees handled it very badly, and as being on the clock the company should have some policy for aiding customers that are in embarassing situations without adding to their pain. It's obvious noone at Home Depot cared about this man's pain.

Would I sue? Depends I would talk to Home Depot and express my displeasure with the way this was handled and expect some form of appology (and not necessarily monetary), and from their reaction and how they treated the situation.

If they treated it poorly, blew me off and acted like it was no big deal, then by all means I'd get a damned good lawyer and go after them, for all I could.

However, if they listened and agreed that this was handled poorly and appologized saying that policy would change and this was not the way they do business, then I'd walk away. Because all someone can do is admit to a mistake, appologize and try to make sure something like that doesn't happen again.

As for public bathrooms, sometimes you just have to go, it's an emergency, now I agree always wipe the toilet seat first, and flush it, and if the company has those paper seat covers use them. Maybe even practice that squat where you don't really have to touch the seat.

i remember a story at least a decade or two ago... about a woman who was on a flight to somewhere (back in the day when flying was a little glamorous) she got up to use the restroom, some mechanical difficulties happened and she basically got her hind quarters stuck in the toilet and she wasn't coming out...

the story I read was that in order to keep this woman calm thru the rest of the flight tehy just kept giving her alcohol... and when the plane landed.. maintenace was called to remove her butt from the toilet... Now THAT would be embarassing... Ah the good old days when all it took was booze to keep someone from suiing... :)

Don't let the facts get in the way of looking down on people for suing. Don't you know that there is NEVER a time that a company should be held liable for its actions?

i know you all are saying i would wipe the seat first... and i mostly agree with you... but once in a great while when you finally get tot he stall and you unbutton your pants its a race to get t hem down before it cmes flying out!

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

I'm no lawyer but didn't he just screw himself by saying that. I should think that one of Home Depot's lawyers or even his own, would be able to explain to him that since you couldn't keep your mouth shut, you just lost a lawsuit.

Not at fault means no lawsuit...doesn't it? What do you think?

They called the ambulance after 15 minutes. To me that says they probably heard him, and came to see what the problem was after about 5-10, and tried to resolve the problem themselves, before calling. Not that unreasonable.

As for thinking it was a hoax, I would not be surprised if the clerk would have been told off for wasting time, if it were a prank. I think it's another case, where something unfortunate has happened, and the person has overreacted.

Just saw the guy on TV (was it Good Morning America?) and he came across as a nut bar. Plus he had a mug in his hand from www.gotglue.com.

He was advertising for a glue company. Yeah, he's not doing this for the cash grab. It's all about the humiliaiton.

Apparently, this isn't Bob's first time with the glue and the toilet and the humiliation

Link a dink

It's nice to see his hard work paying off finally :rolleyes:

heh...I guess he's being stalked by some freaky girl with a fetish!!

Well, my opinion certainly has gone back and forth on this while reading the thread. Psychologists could spend a conference discussing this guy alone.

Man glued to toilet sticks to story
Ok - so he passed the lie detector test.. the headline of the story just cracked me up.. I love it when the headline writers have a sense of humor

Honestly, I don't care if he passed a polygraph test. The things aren't infallible. I just hope he gets tossed out of court on his (abraded or not) ass.