While keeping cars from driving through store windows is undoubtedly a good thing, sometimes bollards — specifically, Target's — can cause more harm than good. On one occasion, a rogue bollard got loose and rolled across a parking lot, smashing into a New Jersey woman's car (via UPI). Luckily she was uninjured in the collision with the two-ton concrete clown nose, but her car sustained $3,300 worth of damages. When Target didn't offer to pay up, she sued them for more than $100,000 in damages to compensate her for "pain and suffering and anxiety."
Target also faced a lawsuit over injuries sustained by a five-year-old boy who'd fallen off of one of these balls outside another New Jersey Target. (New Jersey seems to be ground zero for bollard-related incidents, at least those occurring at Target stores.) The New York Post reports that the boy shattered his elbow and may face future arm mobility problems, so his mom claimed Target should pay $1.6 million on the grounds of those bollards being considered an attractive nuisance to children. Her lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, however, as the judge agreed with Target that the fault lay not with the bollards' bright, cheery design, but in the fact that the injured child had been allowed to climb on the bollards in the first place (via Coupons in the News). As the judge probably told the plaintiff (in slightly different words): Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to climb bollards.
