Food may be the last thing you want to think about after that massive Thanksgiving dinner. But what you ingest may not only be hazardous to your waistline, it could be hazardous to your wallet!
Check out these recent food-related disputes that put individuals and businesses on the hook financially. Warning: Some may leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Sweet endeavor hits a sour note
A pair of 13 year-olds (and their parents) will be swallowing a fine after the local police were called on them for operating their “business” without a permit. The business in question? A bake stand, selling cupcakes, cookies, brownies and Rice Krispie treats in a Chappaqua, NY park. That monetary slap on the wrist was enough to cut these boys’ entrepreneurial spirit off … they haven’t opened another stand since!
The price of fruit just went up … way up
One routine trip to the grocery store turned out to be anything but routine for a Michigan man … and a financial nightmare for the market he visited. Darrel Alexander claims he was knocked unconscious when a lid exploded off a jar of fruit he bought at a Kroger food store last year. He then sued both the manufacturer and the grocery chain. The court refused to throw the case out, and Alexander’s now been offered a hefty $150,000 settlement to end the issue.
Which food group does this fall in?
Of course there doesn’t necessarily have to be food involved to create an eating related expense. Two Kentucky men will pay a steep price after forcing another man to eat his own beard during a drunken dispute. Harvey Westmoreland said two men cut off his beard, then held a sickle to his throat until he ate it! Both offenders were just sentenced to several years’ probation after being convicted.
He must have been really hungry
Then again, sometimes it’s not the food itself, but the lack of it that ends up putting a major financial pinch on someone. Sixty-year-old Guy Edward Jones was so angry his dinner wasn’t ready for him when he got home one night that he set his house on fire! Fortunately, no one was injured. But Jones is about to pay a hefty price:
- Bail money, as he’s been charged with arson
- The cost of a new home, since he burned his down, and
- The price to retain a divorce attorney, because his wife is finished with him.
