One Sec Tech

Cited: Law.com

Everybody has now heard about the infamous motorized La-Z-Boy whose owner or driver became the first person to be arrested for driving under the influence in an easy chair. After his arrest, the police department put it on eBay to sell and it was going for over $40,000. Unfortunately, La-Z-Boy (the company) did not like the idea of being associated with a drunk driver. They put a stop to the auction real fast.

Well, now we know more, thanks to reports from Wired and Sphere, among other sources. Walter Wobig, the police chief in Proctor, Minn., whose department had seized the notorious chair and put it up for auction, told Wired, “I talked to this guy Rand Tucker from La-Z-Boy who asked if we could take ‘La-Z-Boy’ out of the listing and out of the whole thing and to respect the La-Z-Boy trademark.”

Rand Tucker would be R. Rand Tucker, assistant secretary and corporate counsel of La-Z-Boy Incorporated. Chief Wobig said his conversation with Tucker was cordial and the lawyer agreed the auction could go forward provided the La-Z-Boy name was not used.

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Turns out the motorized chair was not even a La-Z-Boy in the first place. A company spokesperson told Wired, “The La-Z-Boy chair and name is one of our most valuable assets and this is a trademark infringement.” As a matter of fact, Wobig said he used the trade name in his eBay auction only because the media had used it in reporting on the case. “The chief even ran the listing by his attorney beforehand, but the guy didn’t pick up on the legal landmine,” Wired says.

Meanwhile, the Proctor police department has relisted the motorized chair on eBay, this time as DWI Chair, Motorized Chair, and Racing Chair. It would appear that now that everyone knows this is a knock-off and not an actual La-Z-Boy, the chair’s value has diminished. The bidding this time around has so far yet to break $10,000.

Going … Going … the DWI Chair is Gone!

The city of Proctor, Minn., is $11,000 richer today but $30,000 poorer than it would have been had it not been for the intervention of the lawyers for La-Z-Boy Corp. The city was finally able to conclude its eBay auction of the now world-famous, pimped-out motorized recliner it seized after arresting the recliner’s driver for operating under the influence.

The auction end on November 6 at 8:15 PM Eastern. The chair officially went to the winning bid of $10,099.99. So far, nobody knows who the new driver is who purchased, however they will have to go to Proctor to get the chair since the bid did not include shipping. Let’s hope the new owner will not repeat the events of the previous owner.

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My Take: I think this is the most ingenious thing anybody has ever created. It just shows you how lazy people really are. I mean, how lazy can you be if you do not want to get out of your easy chair to get a beer?

When will people learn that drinking and driving, even in an easy chair, does not mix. I keep hearing about these devices are going to be put into cars that prevent people from driving if their breath contains a certain level of alcohol, but that does not prevent people with older cars from driving drunk. Too many people die because of drunk drivers.

On a lighter note, this is easy chair and drunk driver have insurance? I wonder if you get charged with not having license plates or insurance?

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