Posted on 11/08/2005 8:24:57 AM PST by Millee
Bob Dougherty's been in a sticky situation - twice.
The Boulder County man who's become nationally known as the guy glued to a Home Depot toilet seat reported a similar incident more than a year ago, according to Nederland's former director of operations.
On Monday, Ron Trzepacz said from his New York home that Dougherty came to him in the summer of 2004 with the same allegation: that his rear had been glued to a toilet seat.
In the 2004 incident, Dougherty, 57, said he was able to pull himself from the seat in the town's visitors center bathroom, Trzepacz told the Rocky Mountain News.
His verbal complaint made it no further than Trzepacz, who said he personally inspected the bathroom and found no adhesive residue and "no indication that anything had been on the toilet seat."
No police report was ever filed and no medical professionals were called to the site, said Trzepacz, who worked for the town for 13 years.
Dougherty - who is well-known in the small mountain town that hosts a festival dedicated to a dead frozen man - and his lawyer, Mark Cohen, could not be reached for comment. The two were in New York on Monday for a live appearance on the Today Show.
In an interview with Today's Katie Couric, Dougherty said he was glued to a toilet seat in the Louisville Home Depot for 20 to 25 minutes in October 2003 before help arrived.
Dougherty claims in a civil lawsuit, filed late last month, that store employees ignored his calls for help and failed to maintain the bathrooms by not stocking paper toilet seat covers.
He's suing for $3 million.
On Oct. 30, 2003, Dougherty said he had a "sour stomach" and rushed to a bathroom stall in the Home Depot. He reached for a paper cover for the seat but found none, the suit said.
Needing to use the restroom urgently, Dougherty sat down anyway.
When he attempted to stand up, he couldn't.
"His buttocks and legs burned from attempting to get up, and he realized that he was glued to the toilet seat," the lawsuit said.
Dougherty's suit said he began to panic and thought he was having a heart attack before hearing a store employee enter the restroom.
He reported calling out to the man, who reported the predicament to the head clerk.
But the lawsuit said the clerk did nothing because she "believed it to be a hoax."
About 15 minutes later, another store employee and a friend of Dougherty's arrived in the restroom. They called an ambulance.
But to Dougherty's horror, medical personnel weren't able to loosen him from the seat.
Instead, emergency workers unbolted "the whole toilet seat and lifted it up with me in it out of the stall and then laid me on a stretcher," Dougherty said on the Today Show. "About that point, I had passed out, and the ambulance crew had jumped on top of me and had a difficult time finding a pulse and - and very little shallow breathing, if they could find that."
Dougherty said the events of the day have caused him pain, humiliation and financial loss
I always check out where I park my butt.
You'll never get rich that way. ;o)
Twice super glued to toilet seats? Sounds like he has no imagination, but he still got the money.
Wouldn't that hurt?
Why isn't he suing the amulance crew for jumping on him?
</sarcasm>
He and the finger-chili lady should get together...
Who doesn't? I mean who goes to a public toilet and just sits down without looking? Then after they sit and feel wetness they just stay there, to what get a better seal? This guy's goose is cooked and he should be locked up for fraud.
Close investigation may find this guy was involved in the Wendy's "finger in the chili" incident.
Sounds like a loser and his lawyer, "Sydney Whiplash", would probably be glad to settle for say, hmmmmmmm, 1 million or so.
TORT REFORM!
Third times a charm...
Who it their right mind EVER SITS on a public toilet seat?????? GROSS, GROSS, GROSS.
You learn the stand n' straddle and get out of as fast as possible.
What money did he get?
The only time one should sit on a public toilet seat is when it is covered with nice, clean glue. NOT
It seems the first time he didn't get stuck so his suit went nowhere, so he made sure to be stuck this time.
Gee. I haven't heard of this guy Dougherty. I wonder what "events of the day" he is talking about.
"In an interview with Today's Katie Couric, Dougherty said he was glued to a toilet seat in the Louisville Home Depot for 20 to 25 minutes in October 2003 before help arrived."
Gee, thanks Mr. Dougherty. You have gone on national television to speak of the "events of the day". It is small wonder that you would, because of appearing on the Today show and talking about the events of the day, you might suffer a little bit of humiliation.
"He's suing for $3 million. "
So I guess you go on natioal television in order to humiliate yourself, so you can sue for $3 million because you have been humiliated.
And some people say that our legal system is in need of tort reform.
Imagine that.
I was thinking the same thing. Didn't his mother tell him to NEVER sit on a toilet seat?
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