Odd News
Kentucky man fired for reacting poorly to his own surprise birthday party
A Kentucky man won $450,000 in a lawsuit against his former employer who allegedly fired him for having a panic attack and leaving his own surprise birthday party.
Kevin Berling suffers from an anxiety disorder that causes him to suffer panic attacks whenever he is the center of attention in a large group of people.
It was for this specific reason that he asked his bosses at Gravity Diagnostics in Covington, a Kentucky medical lab, not to throw him a surprise birthday party, in 2019.
However, a manager at the company claims he forgot about Berling’s request, so they threw a birthday party for him anyway.
That caused Kevin to have a panic attack and storm out of his own celebration, which later caused him to lose his job.
According to Kenton County court filings, Kevin Berling’s surprise birthday party took place on August 7, 2019.
It didn’t go as well as his bosses and colleagues had planned, as the birthday boy himself suffered a panic attack and ran out of the office to his car.
Berling’s reaction didn’t sit too well with Gravity Diagnostics bosses, who later confronted Berling about his unusual reaction, accusing him of depriving his colleagues of the joy of celebrating his birthday, which only caused the man to have another panic attack.
“They started giving him a pretty hard time for his response to the birthday celebration, actually accusing him of stealing his co-workers’ joy,” Berling’s lawyer, Tony Bucher, said.
“Being the center of attention is a source of great stress.”
This time, Kevin’s reaction made Gravity Diagnostics management think that he could get angry and potentially violent, so a few days later, he was fired “because of the events of the previous week”.
Berling then sued Gravity Diagnostics for disability discrimination and retaliation, claiming that he “has suffered and is continuing to suffer from a loss of income and benefits and emotional distress and mental anxiety.”
A court recently awarded Berling $450,000 as compensation, but his former employer still has the chance to appeal the judge’s decision.
And to think it all started because they decided to throw a birthday party for the guy against his will…
Source: Oddity Central
A message in a bottle launched by visitors to Newfoundland’s Bell Island was found washed up on an Irish beach nearly 13 years later, after apparently crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Kate Gay said she was walking a Dingle Peninsula beach this week when she spotted the wine bottle with a sheet of paper inside.
Gay showed the bottle to members of Creative Ireland NeartnaMacharaí during a meeting at her house that evening, and they broke the bottle open.
The note, written by a couple named Brad and Anita, was dated Sept. 12, 2012. The letter described the couple’s day trip to Bell Island.
There was a phone number on the letter, but there was no answer when group members tried to call.
The Maharees Heritage and Conservation group posted photos of the bottleto social media on Monday, and within an hour group members were messaging with Anita.
Group member Martha Farrell said Anita reported that she and Brad had married in 2016 and are still together to this day. -upi.com
A Spanish woman who has been collecting egg cups for over 50 years earned a Guinness World Record when her collection was tallied at 15,485 items.
María José Fuster recruited two witnesses to help her tally her collection at a community center in her hometown of Campo, Spain.
Fuster’s collection includes multiple patterns, colors, designs and even novelty cups bearing the images of characters including Superman, Betty Boop and Garfield.
Fuster maintains two blogs related to her hobby — one to catalog each piece, and one to list the names of the people who have donated egg cups to her collection.
Some of her most prized egg cups, about 1,143 of them, are currently on display at a local museum.
-upi.com
