What dangers might lurk in window cases?

Sunday, August 20, 2006 Fiberglass mannequins can weigh 100 pounds. LOS ANGELES TIMES LOS ANGELES — "Attack of the Mannequins" might sound like a horror film title, but a Westminster woman insists it could be a documentary. Diana Newton sued the J.C. Penney Co. last month after being thwacked on the head by a department store dummy. The 51-year-old said she was ambushed by a legless female mannequin at the Westminster Mall, an altercation that left her with a bloodied scalp, cracked tooth, recurring shoulder pain and numbness in her fingers. The alleged attack was the latest in a string of mannequin mayhem reports nationwide. "There are a slew of lawsuits like this," said mannequin manufacturer Barry Rosenberg, who joked that stores should run background checks on dummies before letting them mingle with shoppers. Most of the cases involve mannequins toppling over onto customers, but an Indiana woman claimed she caught herpes from the lips of an American Red Cross CPR training dummy. She dropped the lawsuit after further tests revealed she didn't have the disease, according to news reports. The Westminster Mall melee happened last summer in the women's department at JCPenney. Newton wanted to buy a blouse, but the only one in her size was worn by a mannequin. When a salesclerk tried to remove the garment, the dummy's arm flew off and struck Newton's head, according to her lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court. "I felt a burning sensation," she recalled. Then, blood cascaded down her face, she contended. Paramedics arrived and patched the gash. Feeling woozy but stable, Newton drove home, then had someone take her to Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach for further treatment. "'My mom got beat up by a mannequin' was the joke around my house," Newton said. Her attorney, A. Jay Norton, admits the case might sound comical, but he insists the mannequin threw a mean punch. A year later, Newton still suffers shoulder pain and "strange sensations in her hands," Norton said. The blow also cracked a molar, which led to a root canal, Newton said. J.C. Penney offered to pay the dental bill, but balked at covering any other expenses, she said. A spokeswoman for the Texas-based retailer said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation. Other cases Getting roughed up by a dummy isn't a slapstick affair. The fiberglass figures can weigh 100 pounds, said manufacturer Rosenberg, chief executive of Mondo Mannequins. In 1993, a Minnesota woman was knocked unconscious by a falling mannequin at a Dayton's department store, according to the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis. She needed five stitches and several chiropractor sessions to recover. Although she didn't sue, others have. A Florida woman collected $175,000 after a faceless Macy's dummy fell onto her neck and reportedly injured a spinal disc.