Just your average criminal.....in a minivan

Mondays are tough - why is that? They seem to get worse the older you get and the more children you have. I went into my Monday in a foul mood after learning that a family friend died over the weekend after a very long battle with cancer. There is no need to exaggerate in talking about the kindness of this man. One of my favorite sayings reminds me of him - "Be the person your dog believes you to be". Phil was that person. His dogs were right on. I'm pissed about his death. pissed.

My foul mood didn't help to deal with the rest of Monday's issues. I was on just a few hours of sleep. I was late dropping Massy off and picking her up at preschool. It rained and was cold all day. Then, this happened...

I drove into town to pick the girls up at school and stopped for gas. I am a gas station snob. I prefer fancy gas stations, but I didn't have time to drive to a fancy one so just stopped at the nearest one. I figured I was going to pay at the pump anyway, so who cares if the place isn't fancy. I went through the whole procedure to pay at the pump - push the "pay outside" button, insert card and remove quickly, indicate that I would like a receipt, get authorized and start pumping. When I was finished the receipt did not print. I cleaned some trash out of my car to pass the time while I waited some more and the receipt still didn't print. I figured it was out of paper and got in my car and drove away. Five blocks later I arrived at the girl's elementary school to pick them up. Next thing I knew there was a truck parked right behind me and a man was at my window. His polo shirt indicated he worked at the gas station. I rolled down my window and he said "You just get gas at my store?" When I told him that I did, he said "you didn't pay". I said that I paid by credit card at the pump and waited a bit for a receipt that didn't come. He told me that they have me on survelience video, which I assume was a way to convince me to stop lying. I was completely confused and kept telling him that I paid. Then he tried to tell me that it must have been someone else's card that was still in the system that allowed me to pump my gas. He insisted that I follow him back to the gas station and pay up. So, I left the school without picking up the girls and followed him back. I was all at once humiliated, nervous and livid. I walked into the gas station with my credit card and told him that I was so embarrassed by this that I could not come back to his station in the future. He then looked at me and told me that my credit card had actually gone through while he was gone (apprehending me), it was just delayed due to a computer glitch in their system. Totally their fault. He said, "Here is your receipt, we'd like you to keep that with you". Oh - so when the cops come to my house with a warrant I can show it to them?? Jeesh. I just looked at him in dismay. He offered no apology for chasing me down and confronting me in front of the school, accusing me of theft and forcing me to leave my kids to follow him back. I realize that gas drive-off theft is a big problem, but once you find out the person is innocent you'd think your tone would change and you would be apologetic. This guy stayed in apprehension mode the whole time. This was a total day-ruiner and I was basically a grouch until bedtime. This morning I saw several gas drive-offs listed in the police report of our local paper. I can bet my incident will be in tomorrow's paper. You can be sure I'll post it here if it is!