Okay, I have an example that will definitely cause a stir- it already has with me.
Last night, we took my older brother and his wife to dinner to celebrate his recent promotion at work. The city we dined in has public non-smoking legislation. Now, my father is a smoker but he has accepted the new laws banning smoking indoors in public places and now does not smoke in restaurants anymore after years of doing so.
As we were set to pay our check, I came across a friend of mine I hadn't seen in about 20 years. It turned out that he was a part owner of the restaurant. Well; we got up to leave, and my long lost friend invited me to have a quick drink with him to exchange numbers, catch up on families, and so on. My dad said he would have a cigarette outside and wait for me. After about 30 minutes, I walked outside. What do you think I came across? Four police officers near my father and another woman screaming at the top of her lungs for the officers to arrest him.
It turned out that my father was sitting on a bench outside the restaurant and had smoked his cigarette. next to the bench was a cigarette urn- the globular type with sand or kitty litter in the bottom to put out the butts.
I listened as the officers tried to explain to the woman that they could not arrest my father because he smoked the cigarette outside in an obviously designated area because of the urn.
The woman continued shrieking that she was going to sue the police department for negligence, and the restaurant for violation of the anti-smoking laws. My father and I began to tire of this scene, so we informed one of the officers that if Dad was not under arrest; we were leaving. we gave him our address and phone number if the police needed us any further.
Well, guess what has transpired today? We just received a telephone call from the city attorney asking us to come in tomorrow and give a statement. The before mentioned woman has actually filed a complaint with the city's police department; and it looks like she is also trying to sue. What do you think of this?