Last week when a video of a woman falling into a fountain at a Pennsylvania mall showed up everywhere, it was interesting … especially since I first noticed it on Windows Phone Thoughts where it was highlighted as ‘Windows Phone 7 Ad Comes True’.
Microsoft, you might recall, has a new phone generation out (you are forgiven if you missed it, and the 40 people who bought them will probably not notice), and their commercials show people completely immersed in their phones to the point of missing out on real life.
Fortunately, you can immediately see that the person wasn’t seriously harmed as she gets right back up and walks away. As someone who has done more than a few stupid things in my life, I am glad that most of them happened in the era before cell phones and ubiquitous security cameras were around to capture them!
In short, I would have been embarrassed for being such an idiot.
Anyway, now we find out that this all-consumed texter wasn’t a 20-something kid, but a 49 year old, according to BuzzFeed:
Meet The Woman Who Fell Into A Fountain While Texting
They found the woman who fell into a fountain while texting. Her name is Cathy Cruz Marrero and she’s a 49-year-old born again Christian from Reading, PA. She’s not very happy about it, though. She says, “It’s funny, but you need to see the serious side of it. What if it was a senior citizen? Would it be funny then?”
Of course, most of us would fail to find it humorous if our own stupidity suddenly became a world-wide viral video. Heck, it was bad enough when we were young and got caught doing something silly and caught ridicule from our friends!
Of course, because this is modern-day America, rather than being embarrassed she has sought legal counsel and will be suing the mall over the incident:
“My issue is I don’t think security was professional because they didn’t send anyone to check on me until 20 minutes later and I had already left. Instead of laughing, they should have said, ‘Is she OK?’ and been down there right away to check on me.”
Does she have a point? Possibly – security in a mall is often tasked not just for keeping troublemakers under control, but also for dealing with possible injury and liability issues. And someone falling into the fountain definitely qualifies! But before we think to hard, let’s check out the REAL motivation:
“We are troubled by the fact that anyone at the Berkshire Mall responsible for releasing this video would find humor in an employee injured on the premises. We intend to hold the appropriate persons responsible. No one from that security office came to her aid in a timely manner.”
Ah – THERE we go! Let’s check … is it a legal requirement for the mall to come to her aid, particularly when she was demonstrably fine as she walked away and was seen talking to others who approached her after? Not in any criminal sense … and in fact since someone from the janitorial staff did in fact approach her on video it could be argued that they DID come “to her aid in a timely manner.”
The motivation? Money – she and the lawyers plan to cry negligence and try for the good old big money lawsuit. All we can hope is that whoever is in charge pulls out a Judge Judy line on her and says “Ms. Marrero … you’re an IDIOT!”