A rather interesting case was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon against the United States. The action was a claim for negligence against the defendant arising out of alleged injuries to her hearing as a result of an alarm on a United States Postal Service (USPS) vending machine.
The USPS office used a vending machine to dispense postal products to the public. The particular machine had a security alarm and strobe light security feature. Standard customer use would not trigger the security alarm. The alarm was designed to sound if the customer hit or moved the machine or otherwise manipulated it outside the normal course of selecting and paying for postal products. The machine was temperamental to the extent that the alarm would sound if the machine drawer was open and the person stocking it could not carefully key in the access code. The machine did not bear a warning telling customers that an alarm would sound if children played on the machine or if a customer jostled the machine. The purpose of the security alarm was to prevent theft and damage to the machine and to alert postal service employees to a potential security issue.