Stupid people

Today I was working a route that required two people, so we had a company truck. After we finished our regular work, we had to run downtown to put a new meter lid on a box that was missing a lid. It was at a parking lot at 421 W. Market St.

Remember that address, it might help you if you ever have to park there.

Remember I said we were in the company truck, and of course we were wearing our work uniforms. We told the ticket booth guy that we just needed to get in for a minute to put a new lid on the meter box. He said we'd still have to pay. We explained to him again that who exactly we were and what exactly we needed to do, and that we wouldn't actually be parking, just putting a new lid on an open meter box. He shook his head and said that his manager would have to sign off on it if we wanted back out without paying.

So while my co-worker was replacing the lid, I ran down to the office and asked the manager if he'd sign the ticket so that we wouldn't have to pay for replacing the lid. He was very friendly and accommodating, and wrote on it to the effect that we didn't have to pay, signed his name, and told me the story about the meter box, which was still full of water from the rain several days ago. Apparently someone claimed their kid had stepped in it and "gone into water up to his chest." He said he didn't believe it, but it was still a safety hazard, and it was, of course. I told him the box couldn't be more than about 10 inches deep, so it would've had to have been a pretty short kid.

But anyway, I ran back out the parking lot and my partner had already popped the lid on and we were ready to go. We got back to the booth, handed the guy the ticket that the manager had signed, and he said, "Two dollars."

Well, we were already aggravated from having to run around replacing a lid, and this didn't help. My words were something like, "What the hell are you talking about? The manager already signed us out."

His reply: "Two dollars. You stayed past the grace period."

Me: "What grace period? We were in there for less than three minutes. You told me to get the manager to sign us out so we wouldn't have to pay, and that's exactly what I did. And now you're telling us to pay for parking, when we didn't actually park?" Except I'm not sure I was actually that polite. I was totally flabbergasted at him.

So he pulled out his trusty handie-talkie and after talking with someone (the manager, I assume) for about ten seconds he lifted the barricade and angrily motioned for us to leave.

********. You can fill those in with what ever you please.

Like I said, the manager was perfectly understanding and immediately gave us permission to leave without paying for parking. It was the idiot drone in the ticket booth who was obviously suffering from rectal-cranial inversion.