Serving a Subpoena in Concourse A - Server responds

I am not the OOP. The OOP is u/BrotherMainer posting in r/delta

The server is u/GoodNewsWagon who replied in the comments

Concluded as per OOP

1 update - Medium

Original - 9th January 2025

Update - 10th January 2025

Serving a Subpoena in Concourse A

Man is camped out in front of the ladies room in Concourse A with a shirt that says “See You In Court”. I overheard him say to an ATL police officer that he is trying to serve a woman a subpoena and when she saw him coming she ran and hid in the ladies room.

She’s been hiding in there for a very long time and he seems content to wait her out.

Edit: 6:20pm: Still waiting. My wife went in to use the bathroom and she apparently is hiding in a stall talking to a janitor who is telling her if he’s still outside. “I have time, I’m staying here” she said.

Janitor came out and she talked with the guy, almost to dissuade him. He was undeterred and very loudly said toward the door “ONE WAY IN, ONE WAY OUT”

6:30pm: Three more ATL cops and supervisor here. Subpoena guy is saying that the shake shack employees know who she is and are working to hide her from him. The cops are conferring to decide if they want to send someone in.

6:35: Subpoena guy is now loudly arguing with the ATL police supervisor. They are asking if she was served already, he said “she took it and threw it on the floor”, supervisor says “well then she’s been served!”

6:40: Well dressed apparent airport management is here now talking to janitorial staff and police. They are demanding to know how he got in here to serve a subpoena. “I bought a ticket to Newark!”

6:45: Subpoena guy called someone and explained the situation and he was told to “bail” so he’s now walking up the concourse away. Lady has not shown herself. Police are still here.

6:50: Everyone is dispersing. Airport Manager lady just went into the bathroom to tell this woman she’s in the clear.

7:00pm: Probably the final update. I struck up a conversation with one of the cops who said she is still in there and she keeps changing her flight on her phone so she can be in there as long as possible. “I don’t think she’s coming out tonight” he said.

7:10pm: Nevermind, she came out! She looks like a caricature - Cruella DeVil meets Driving Miss Daisy. She thanked the janitor staff for “protecting her” and went on her way. And by her way I mean directly to the nearest bar and now she’s getting hammered.

7:30pm: we were wrong, Cruella wasn’t the woman. Real woman just came out. She has a hood on, and a surgical mask, and a baseball cap. She is being ushered by employees. She is totally freaking the F out right now. Airport manager lady is helping her hide by our gate. Could you imagine if she is on our flight…

7:40pm: Female employee bought her a snack and brought her to a gate agent to try and get her on the next plane out of here tonight

7:43pm: she’s got a ticket! But flight is delayed due to crew missing. Employees are literally posting up around her to hide her in case subpoena dude is still here

7:50pm: She boarded her flight, she made it out guys. An employee held her hand as she boarded saying “I got you, I got you” and the lady handed the employee a roll of cash apparently as a tip.

Roll credits I guess.

Edit again, post-credits scene. I was brave enough to ask one of the employees what happened. Apparently she told everyone subpoena dude is HER HUSBAND. Nasty divorce and she got all the money. He is trying to sue her to get some back and she is trying to dodge it. This is amazing.

Edit: I did snap a photo of the employees chatting with Cruella de Daisy. My wife said she was in the bathroom for at least an hour talking with the real lady. Between that and her main character energy she was a very good decoy. Didn’t take a photo of real lady. She looked like a celebrity dodging the paparazzi

Day 2 Edit: Apparently the guy serving the subpoena saw this get posted on Facebook and created an account to comment on it here. Day-old account I was sure was fake but he described his outfit to a tee. Hoping he can shed some light and more dramatic detail.

Comments

MeaningParticular765

I’m sorry but “I bought a ticket to Newark!” made me laugh way too loudly.

Consistent-Ad-3484

I read that in the voice of George from its a wonderful life

FlyingMitten

We need 30 minute status updates on this!

OOP:
My flight doesn’t leave for another three hours. Much to the chagrin of my wife, we are going to camp out and see what happens

Sleep_adict

Oh fun!!! Can’t he just send a woman in?

OOP:
She locked herself in a stall. ATL police apparently are refusing to go in and get her. Two more officers just showed up to talk to the guy

Dusty_Tipp

Let me grab some popcorn

bsil15

eople really don’t seem to get that the purpose of service of process is to ensure that you’re aware of a legal proceeding against you and don’t receive a default judgment against you. It’s not supposed to be taken of advantage of to avoid a lawsuit or testifying or producing documents by means of procedural tricks.

I’m sure process servers have a reputation of being by scummy (and maybe they are) but if someone sues you, you respond to the lawsuit. If you’re in the right, hopefully you win. But camping out in a bathroom is not the way you go about that. A friend of mine was subpoenaed to be deposed in someone else’s lawsuit. I told him to go to the deposition and move on with his life since the suit really had nothing to do with him. Instead, he bought a ticket across the country to avoid being served but then got served anyways within a week of returning home. So he then got deposed, and, what do you know, had nothing useful to say so was not called as a witness at the trial. My friend also hired a lawyer for the deposition and wasted probably $8k btw the flight and lawyer.

ifitswhatusayiloveit

yeah…you’re not being a hero by evading service, you’re delaying the inevitable. In my state, I could write up what happened and submit it to the court and very likely get granted alternate service

trying to get her served at the airport is still pretty absurd…if he hired a process server to do it there because she’s been evading service, I’d have to imagine you could prove that to the court without needing to buy a ticket to Newark

so it’s also entirely likely the opposing party is a huge asshole

Update - 1 day later - The server replies in a comment

Well, all I can say is thank you, thank you so much. I am the guy in question. I have been serving papers for 20 years. I will also say, this is going to be one for the books.

She had been served once she got off her flight. I will see if I can upload the video at the end of this. She ran into the bathroom, and I can’t go in, it is against the law, so I waited. The airport employees were part of the issue. They were the ones calling 911, trying to have me arrested, not knowing that I am a court appointed process server, and I had not broken any laws. They on the other hand, broke several by getting involved, and interfering, and lying to a process server, it’s a whole thing. Jobs may be in jeopardy for their actions. She broke the law by not accepting service, which you are required to by law. She will get her own set of problems by causing all of this. I am sure the judge will sign an arrest warrant for her, and she will get got sooner or later. I never understand why an individual is willing to make their life harder than it already is. By the way, this was the 4th time I have gone down to serve her, this was the 1st time she was actually on the flight and she hadn’t rebooked. Oh yeah, she rebooked her flight while sitting in the bathroom.

As far as my being her ex husband, that is false, and I may pursue that down the road. Truth is, her ex husband is in prison, and if I understand it correctly, he is in prison as it has to do with the case the subpoena is for, that she is avoiding.

I hope this clears up some things.

Comments

OOP: If you are real, tell me what else you were wearing

GoodNewsWagon

Khaki Dickie shorts, Hoka shoes blue/orange with “I ❤️Beer” socks. And a brace on my right wrist from surgery 2 weeks ago.

OOP: Holy crap, it is you. Thank you for the entertainment. I hope you don’t mind the play by play. I wonder why the employees said you were her husband, or maybe they misheard and she said you were sent by him or something.

GoodNewsWagon: I was told by APD that is what she had told them. They were the ones calling 911, not once did she. That should have sent up red flags to the employees.

Ska-Skank_Redemption

can confirm, this dude is my buddy and he just texted me about this! 😭 i've heard his stories about trying to serve this woman at the airport before. edit https://imgur.com/a/m22zCan?

panoisclosedtoday

She lied to get sympathy and evade service. It worked on everyone there, most of these comments, and you.

here4daratio

How long did you end up waiting? Were the PD not willing to take action to further the process, even if it’s a civil matter?

GoodNewsWagon:
I was waiting on her to come out of the bathroom for around 3 hours. Because it was a civil matter APD was not able to get involved.

Previous-Ad2183

Can you explain accepting service? In my state, the person being served doesn’t have to sign anything. She would’ve been considered served as soon as you gave her the subpoena not matter what she did with it.

GoodNewsWagon:
You are correct, but to be honest, I wanted to make sure she understood. As I stated in my response, this was the 4th time I had been sent to serve, and the first time she was on the flight.

Big_League227

Seems to me that if you are a process server, wearing a shirt that says “See you in court!” would be counterproductive to what you are supposed to be accomplishing!

GoodNewsWagon It is one of the tamer shirts that I wear when working.

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