DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Home Depot is defending a lawsuit filed by a man who claims one of the chain's stores ignored his cries for help after he fell victim to a prank and was glued to a toilet seat.

Bob Dougherty, 57, of nearby Nederland, said he became stuck to a bathroom toilet seat last year after somebody smeared glue on it.

"They left me there, going through all that stress," Dougherty told The Daily Camera, of Boulder. "They just let me rot."

His lawsuit, filed Friday, said Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery at the time and thought he was having a heart attack. A store employee who heard him calling for help informed the head clerk via radio, but the head clerk "believed it to be a hoax," the lawsuit said.

Home Depot spokeswoman Kathryn Gallagher said she could not comment on pending litigation.

According to the lawsuit, store officials called for an ambulance after about 15 minutes. Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat.

Dougherty, "frightened and humiliated," passed out as he was being wheeled out of the store, court papers said.

The lawsuit said the toilet seat separated from his skin, leaving abrasions.

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

(Who in the blue hell would do something like this? IMHO an IDIOT, Altho I guess if it had happened to me I would be very P.O.'d to )
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That would suck. But put yourself in their shoes. if you heard a guy saying he was stuck to the crapper would you open the stall door to look at him? I probly would of left him there to until a good amount of time went by just to be sure. I mean what if he was some wacko and just wanted to pull a j/k on someone and when they opened the door flash them?? I mean come on. I know hes probly going to make a good million of this case. but why wait so long to do something about it? 2 freaking years!! I guess it put that much stress on him to where he had to think for 2 yrs before doing something about it.

Well it's time for the Crapper update




DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- A man who sued Home Depot last month claiming a prank left him glued to a toilet seat made a similar allegation about another restroom more than a year ago, an official told a newspaper.

Bob Dougherty's lawsuit alleges employees at the store ignored his pleas for help on the day before Halloween 2003 because they thought he was kidding.

But Ron Trzepacz, former director of operations for the town of Nederland, where Dougherty lives, told the Rocky Mountain News in Tuesday's editions that Dougherty told him in the summer of 2004 he was glued to a toilet seat in the town's visitor center but pulled himself free.

Trzepacz told the paper he inspected the bathroom and found "no indication that anything had been on the toilet seat." No police report was filed, he said.

Dougherty's lawyer, Mark Cohen, denied his client made such a claim and said Dougherty, 57, is willing to take a polygraph test.

"The allegation doesn't make any sense," Cohen told The Associated Press Tuesday.

Neither Trzepacz nor the Nederland town administrator immediately returned a call from AP. Nederland is about 45 miles northwest of Denver.

Dougherty's lawsuit, filed October 28, states that officials at the store in Louisville called for an ambulance after he had been stuck for about 15 minutes. Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat, which separated from his skin, leaving abrasions, according to the suit. (Full story)

The lawsuit also stated Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery and that he thought he was having a heart attack when he got stuck.

The lawsuit claims he suffered pain, humiliation and financial loss. It seeks $3 million.

"It's not about the money. I want my health back. I want to be back to normal," Dougherty said. "I want to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody ever, ever again."
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