In 2007, a 23 year-old woman hailed a Greater Houston Transportation cab and asked the driver to take her home. He began to drive toward Kingwood, a suburb outside of Houston where she lived, but ignored her request to make the exit. When the woman threatened to call the police, the driver grabbed her phone and threatened to rape her. She escaped by jumping out of the moving cab. The driver was an ex-convict who had served several prison terms for a number of felonies, including assault. Although the woman survived, she claimed that she suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome and filed a lawsuit against Yellow Cab, the regional taxi company that employed the driver.

In 1996, a licensing manager for Taco Bell attended a trade show and came across a cartoon Chihuahua dog character called “Psycho Chihuahua.” The manager expressed an interest in using the character for its marketing campaigns, but after numerous focus groups and extensive discussions with the creators of the character, Taco Bell decided not to close a deal with the creators of the character.