Imaginary Landscape
RSS FeedAccording to a Chicago Sun-Times article this week, a renter named Amanda Bonnen tweeted some trash talk about her landlord:
"Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay."
This was mixed with an unremarkable stream of tweets that included:
"All of these people eating McDonalds is making me want to hurl."
"I can tell I'm on the right flight for fort meyers, the average age tends to be about 70."
"We may not win games, but we ALWAYS win at drinking and looking damn good."
Mashable did a story that went into a little more detail, showing a screenshot of the now defunct twitter account. Ms. Bonnen had 20 followers.
Horizon Group Management LLC, the landlord, filed a defamation lawsuit seeking $50,000 in damages from Ms. Bonnen. Mr. Jeffrey Michael of Horizon is quoted in the Sun-Times article saying, "The statements are obviously false, and it's our intention to prove that."
However, the best part was his response when asked why the company had not contacted Ms. Bonnen directly about the tweet or asked her to take it down.
"We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization."
As one might imagine, that quote stirred up quite a storm. So much so that Mr. Michael turned it into a teaching moment with help from a PR firm.
"I would first like to take this opportunity to apologize for tongue and cheek comments that were made previously regarding our approach to litigation. This statement is not in line with our philosophy towards property management and was taken out of context."
I bet.
I suspect the bigger concern is the number of plaintiffs lining up to sue Ms. Bonner. McDonald's, the City of Fort Meyers, septuagenarians, ugly drunks. Perhaps the line is as long as those seeking an apartment from Horizon.
Perhaps longer.
Updated 07/14/10 @ 10:45AM CDT by brian
Categories: Chicagoland Technology
