Sex-toy trouble leads to lawsuit, bad vibrations
By J.M. Lawrence
Saturday, March 26, 2005
This Rabbit is no Easter bunny.
A New Hampshire woman claims in a lawsuit that one of the world's most popular sex toys known as the I-Vibe Rabbit sent her to the emergency room with burns from leaking battery acid.
``I was in agony,'' the 55-year-old Salem office worker told the Herald. ``It took me two days to work up the courage to go to the hospital. It was so embarrassing.''
In a suit pending in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, her lawyer, Marc S. Alpert, sued Rabbit makers Doc Johnson Enterprises of California, Duracell battery maker Gillette, Walgreen's and the Waltham sex boutique Lifestyles Inc., where the woman, who did not want to be identified, and her boyfriend bought the vibrator for $89.
The woman said she was burned by the Rabbit - first popularized on the HBO series ``Sex in the City'' - on April 4, 2002, the first time she ran the machine with batteries purchased at Walgreen's.
Her lawyer said none of the defendants in the case will take the blame. ``The battery people claim the product should have had an acid catcher,'' Alpert said.
A spokeswoman for Doc Johnson Enterprises of North Hollywood said she could not comment.
The Rabbit put the plaintiff out of commission in the bedroom so long she lost her boyfriend.
``He broke up with me,'' she said.