Woman sued Hooters after she won contest for new car and was given toy Yoda instead
An employee at Hooters was left furious after winning a work competition, only to not get the prize that she was expecting.
Jodee Berry worked at restaurant chain Hooters when the chain was running a competition for the employees.
This was a contest run on 1 April, 2001 to see who would have the largest beer sales for the day, with the grand prize for the competition being a Toyota.
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It all sounds excellent, except for one thing.
The eagle-eyed among you may have already spotted something here, and that is that the competition was held on 1 April, aka April Fool's Day.
At least, that's what Hooters corporate owner Gulf Coast Wings, Inc told Jodee after she excelled in beer sales and won the contest.
When Jodee came to claim her prize, she was told that the whole competition had been an april fools joke.
Instead of a car, Jodee found herself the recipient of a doll of Star Wars Jedi master Yoda. Get it? A instead of a Toyota, a 'Toy-Yoda'.
Angry, she was.
And unlike Yoda's speech in The Phantom Menace, this anger did not lead to hate, but to a civil lawsuit against Gulf Coast Wings Inc.
Jodee sued Gulf Coast Wings Inc for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation.
But did the court uphold her complaint, or view as just another punchline in the April Fools Joke?
Well, it turns out that the court very much did uphold her complaint, and Jodee was able to successfully sue for damages over the joke.
Ultimately, Jodee was awarded damages, surely wiping the smiles off the faces of the pranksters.
The exact amount of money that she was awarded was not publicly disclosed, but her attorney David Noll did say that it was enough that she could walk into a dealership and 'pick out whatever type of Toyota she wants'.
Although the restaurant's manager Jared Blair claimed the whole affair had been an April Fool's Joke, they certainly ended up getting more than they bargained for by the end.
It may even have been cheaper to have just given the car as the prize to begin with.
People had many thoughts on the escapade and took to social media to share them.
One posted: "See, it's FUNNY; but you still have to give her the car after so it's not mean."
Another wrote: "The joke is actually pretty funny, but honestly how else did they expect that one to go over?"
A third replied: "Serves them well. Good on her for not giving a hoot about those jokers and taking them to court. Well done."
Kit Roberts