[BrockthePaine]

BLUFFTON, S.C. - A would-be carjacker got a different kind of jolt from his intended victim's morning cup of coffee, authorities said.

The suspect tapped the car window Wednesday morning with a gun and motioned the driver to get out, Chief Deputy Roy Hughes said.

But the driver — who had just bought a cup of hot coffee — slammed the car door into the carjacker's legs, threw the coffee at his neck and face and wrestled him to the ground, Hughes said.

A shot was fired during the scuffle but no one was hurt, Hughes said. He said the driver managed to get the gun from the suspect and point it at him.

The suspect ran into nearby woods, Hughes said. Deputies are searching for him and two people thought to be with him who drove off during the scuffle. Why am I thinking "failure of the target selection process"??

BCP

[matthewdanger]

There is a man with the warrior mindset! Used the car door and his coffee as weapons. He needs a proper firearm but I still think we can all learn a thing or two about mindset from this guy.

Thanks Brock

[Lupey]

Good for him! He used what he had to the best of his ability.

[Popeye]

:up: :up: :up:

[Redrum]

Oh NO! Not the coffee!!! Remember the dingbat that sued Mickey-D's for burning herself with coffee??? Now this guy...if he get's caught will have an ACLU mouthpiece do the same thing.....

[7.62mmFMJ]

He handled it well :D

[Wyoming]

When I was in high school (way back when) a friend was a car hop (see I told you so) at the local Tastee Freez (yes, that is the correct spelling). A guy pulled in one night and ordered a cup of coffee. When she brought it to him he had exposed himself. You guessed it! Hot coffee on his little ***********. No worry then about her being sued, he got a trip to the county jail after he left the hospital.

[Lupey]

Oh NO! Not the coffee!!! Remember the dingbat that sued Mickey-D's for burning herself with coffee??? Now this guy...if he get's caught will have an ACLU mouthpiece do the same thing.....


Dont want to hijack but http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm

[BrockthePaine]

When I was in high school (way back when) a friend was a car hop (see I told you so) at the local Tastee Freez (yes, that is the correct spelling). A guy pulled in one night and ordered a cup of coffee. When she brought it to him he had exposed himself. You guessed it! Hot coffee on his little ***********. No worry then about her being sued, he got a trip to the county jail after he left the hospital.
:lol::lol:That's great!:lol::lol:

[Brian D.]

Two .45 acp hydra shocks would have been cheaper than throwing store-bought coffee on that would-be carjacker! And, think of how many 9mm's you could have fired, for the same price as a cup of Starbuck's! ;)

[Redrum]

Dont want to hijack but http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm
Not a hijack...Just proves my point of it being frivilous...If you buy coffee...you expect it to be hot....no cold....Hot is a relative term...so always check it before you put your lips on the cup....She was 81 at the time...guess she wasn't to stable.......:dunno:

[Hook]

Two .45 acp hydra shocks would have been cheaper than throwing store-bought coffee on that would-be carjacker! And, think of how many 9mm's you could have fired, for the same price as a cup of Starbuck's! ;)

The coffee would keep the BG awake longer. :D
The hydra-shocks wouldn't have been cheaper by the time court costs and a lawyer's fee were paid.



Hook

[Hook]

Not a hijack...Just proves my point of it being frivilous...If you buy coffee...you expect it to be hot....no cold....Hot is a relative term...so always check it before you put your lips on the cup....She was 81 at the time...guess she wasn't to stable.......:dunno:

Probably didn't have too much down there in her lap to burn either. :D



Hook

[Redrum]

Probably didn't have too much down there in her lap to burn either. :D



Hook
I'm not touching that one!!!:lol:

[LeiraHoward]

Not a hijack...Just proves my point of it being frivilous...If you buy coffee...you expect it to be hot....no cold....Hot is a relative term...so always check it before you put your lips on the cup....She was 81 at the time...guess she wasn't to stable.......:dunno:
On that coffee case (http://www.atlanet.org/pressroom/FACTS/frivolous/McdonaldsCoffeecase.aspx)... I thought similarly to you until I dug into the actual facts of the case. (The link I have here is slightly better, I think.)

Some relevant points:

*This particular lawsuit dealt with a lady who was trying to put cream and sugar in her coffee and it spilled all over her, she was in a stopped vehicle and not the person driving at the time.

*The coffee at that particular McDonald's was served at between 180 to 190 degrees Farenheit. Liquids at 180 degrees will cause a full thickness (third degree) burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. (For comparison, coffee served at home is generally 135 to 140 degrees, at restaurants usually slightly higher.)

*After the lawsuit, the temperature of the coffee served dropped to about 155 degrees. There had been over 700 instances documented prior to this lawsuit with similar burns, but McDonalds had ignored them, as they were "statistically insignificant."

(Point of all that, Yes, you expect coffee to be hot, but not hot enough to cause THIRD degree burns within seconds. You might expect to "burn" the inside of your mouth if you tried to drink coffee too soon, but you'd most likely be thinking of only first degree burns, not needing medical attention.
This lawsuit, as frivolous as it sounds, actually had a solid base to it, and due to the lawsuit, the chances of any of the rest of us getting 3rd degree burns from coffee were significantly lessened.)

[7.62mmFMJ]

So personal responsibility is out the window as we parse degrees.

I like my coffee hot and I know that coffee is hot.

[LeiraHoward]

So personal responsibility is out the window as we parse degrees.
No. There is always a certain amount of personal responsibility. (In this particular lawsuit, the lady who spilled the coffee was found partially to blame, and McDonalds was found partly to blame.)

Here's something to think about: what about the company's "personal responsibility" to sell a safe product?

And believe it or not, the temperature that the coffee is at does matter.

You stated that you like your coffee hot. How hot? If you pour yourself a cup of coffee and a little bit sloshes over the top of the cup and hits your hand, do you go "ouch" and wipe it off, have it sting a little, but no major issues? That's the sort of "hot" most people expect when dealing with "hot" coffee. Now, if you poured yourself a cup of coffee, had a bit slosh over the top, and by the time you wiped it off you had 2nd or 3rd degree burns and had to go into the hospital for skin grafts, wouldn't you consider that too hot?

If you spilled a cup of coffee in your lap and "burned" yourself and were sore for a couple days, you'd probably be okay. If you spilled a cup of coffee in your lap and instantly had 3rd degree burns and your genitals were no longer intact, you'd probably question the safeness of the product you were sold as well.

[7.62mmFMJ]

I have choices. I can buy coffee anywhere. Maybe one guy serves tepid coffee, another servies real hot coffee. People know that coffee is hot. McDonalds did not spill that coffee in the lady's lap.

We need more common sense and personal responsibility and less lawyers.

By your argument, gun manufacturers should be sued for every death.

[matthewdanger]

By your argument, gun manufacturers should be sued for every death.

And there's the hook! 7.62 makes a great point. These type of lawsuits can tend to open up the floodgates.

[LeiraHoward]

I have choices. I can buy coffee anywhere. Maybe one guy serves tepid coffee, another servies real hot coffee. People know that coffee is hot. McDonalds did not spill that coffee in the lady's lap.

We need more common sense and personal responsibility and less lawyers.

By your argument, gun manufacturers should be sued for every death. You're going to need to connect the dots here. Nowhere in my argument was there anything that parallels the gun manufacturers sued for every death (I'm assuming you only meant deaths-by-guns, though your wording could leave it open for all deaths from disease, old age, etc.).

You still are giving absolutely no "personal responsibility" to the company. Your argument of "people know that coffee is hot" is not addressing the real issue here, which is that of the company wantonly disregarding their own responsibility.

Please note that I am not saying that the customers have no responsibility, or that companies should be held responsible for misuse of their products. There are a LOT of cases out there that are cases where customers neglected their personal responsibility, and in those cases, I would agree with you. An example of stupid misuse would be the idiots who tried to use a push lawnmower as a hedge trimmer. This is not a normal, intended use of the product, and the company should not have been held liable.

However, I do not believe that the McDonalds case was one of those frivolous cases. There are instances where lawsuits should be held, in order to hold companies responsible for wanton negligence.

You say you know coffee is hot... how do you know whether the coffee you are getting from one place is tepid or too hot until you've tried it? Would you be expecting coffee to be over 30 degrees hotter at McDonalds than at other places? (And more to the point, can you be 100% certain that you would not spill any of the hotter coffee on yourself, ever?)

It is just as much the responsibility of the company to be sure that the food they serve is within a reasonable temperature or that the customer is alerted to the fact that the temperature is abnormal as it is to be sure that the contents of the product are non-toxic. (Would you support a lawsuit if it was found that the company had been introducing arsenic into their coffee?) The customer has the responsibility to eat/drink the food and not decide that it is a shampoo or something silly like that. The customer has the responsibility to use the product in the normal, intended way.

Manufacturers should be held liable when the normal, intended use of their product causes harm. Granted, spilling coffee is not the intended use of the product, but still falls into the "normal" category as most of us are likely to be clutzes a time or two. Drinking coffee, however, is the NORMAL, intended use of the product... and again, instant 3rd degree burns are not a normal, intended consequence of drinking your coffee too fast.

Please note that murdering others is not the normal, intended use of a firearm.

The new bill that just went through the legislative branch of the government is a good example of just what should be allowed... the new law prohibits lawsuits against the firearms industry for damages resulting from the unlawful use of a firearm or ammunition. They are still subject to product liability, negligence or breach of contract suits.

In other words, if a gun manufacturer made a gun that was likely to explode when a normal round was fired from it, causing injury or death, they could be sued.

In the McDonalds case, if someone decided to use it as a shampoo or as a weapon, McDonalds should not be sued, as those were not normal, intended uses of the product. However, since they knowingly sold a product that caused harm when used in the normal, intended way, and did not care, they were held liable for the damages they caused.

[LeiraHoward]

And there's the hook! 7.62 makes a great point. These type of lawsuits can tend to open up the floodgates.
Ah, but by that argument, no one should ever sue companies for running child sweatshops, as that opens the floodgates for disgruntled employees suing for better conditions....

(Granted, this is an extreme example, but you started it.... :P)

[lonevoice]

From what I understand, this lady wasn't holding the cup in her hands(which besides your feet are the toughest part of the body). I understood that the was holding the cup between her legs (an area proximate to a MUCH more tender area). If I'm incorrect, please correct me, but a little preliminary research says that's the case.

Although not being an expert on coffee temps, I'm pretty sure I'd have fixed up my coffee in another way, or at least while the vehicle was stopped. I dunno, maybe I'm just weird.

Either way, I would NOT have sued over this, I'd have been embarrassed to get up and tell about it.

Now the guy who foiled the carjacking with the coffee, more power to him. More folks need to fight back, preferably armed and trained. (wishful thinking, I know.)

JMHO

[LeiraHoward]

or at least while the vehicle was stopped.
As was already stated multiple times, the vehicle *was* stopped...