What was supposed to be a day spent celebrating love turned into a viral headache for a Kansas mom after her little boy knocked over an expensive statue on display at a friend's wedding venue. News quickly spread after Tomahawk Ridge Community Center's security footage captured Sarah Goodman's 5-year-old boy "hugging" a loaned statue valued at $132,000 and toppling it over with his embrace. Goodman and her husband received the hefty bill for damages and spoke out about why her family shouldn't be financially responsible for the accident. Now, they officially aren't.
A month after the incident, the city has been reimbursed for the broken sculpture. According to Overland Park officials, the family's insurance company sent a check for $107,000, which covers all but the city's insurance policy's $25,000 deductible.
Goodman told the Kansas City Star that she wasn't aware that her insurance company decided to pay out but it's exactly what she wanted. In the days after the incident, she received a bill from the company stating she was the one responsible for the cost and Goodman spoke out slamming the notion that her family should have to pay.
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"As his mother and as my husband as his father, I know we're ultimately responsible for damages that our children cause. If my child intentionally defaced property we would absolutely figure out a way to put ourselves out there to be responsible and pay for the damages to make sure the lesson was reinforced without any question," she said on the British show, This Morning. "In this particular situation our 5-year-old was just being a little kid and there was no malice or intention to damage any property."
In other interviews, Goodman also said that the city and community center should be responsible for displaying such an expensive piece of artwork without proper protection. "That type of artwork had absolutely no business being in that community center," she told KMBC. "I cannot believe they allowed something so dangerous to be where kids play."
Goodman's sentiments outraged many across the internet who believe it was Goodman and her husband's fault for not watching her children. Those on this side feel that parents should have to pay up for anything that happens when they don't "properly" supervise their kids.
But now that the issue over who was going to pay for the statue is settled, the city is reportedly sending the artist a check for $99,000. Although Goodman questions how the statue's value was determined, city spokesman Sean Reilly told the Kansas City Star that artist Bill Lyons is being reimbursed for how much he would've received had the sculpture sold at the community center.
