I had a meeting in the city this afternoon on 12th and University, at the University Cafe. I drove in to the city as I always do and parked my car at the 12th Street Garage Corp, 17 East 12th Street in the Village.
I told the attendant that I would be an hour or less and quickly walked away to go to my meeting. When the meeting was finished, I reached into the pocket of my coat and found my keys. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t leave the keys in the car. Well, at least my meeting only lasted 1/2 hour and I quickly ran down the block to the garage.
When I got there, the guy who was at the counter started screaming at me. “You screwed us, Lady,” he said. “We couldn’t get any cars in or out of here and you really screwed us!”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I made a mistake. I won’t let it happen again.”
“That’s no excuse, you screwed me and we lost money,” he continued. He didn’t want to hear what I had to say. “And besides, you owe me an extra $50 because you took the keys.”
“WHAT? YOU’RE KIDDING RIGHT?”
“I’m not kidding. You screwed us over lady and I’m really pissed off,” he said. He wanted to show me the sign that said he was allowed to charge me $50 more.
I handed him my credit card. For only 1/2 hour in the city, it cost me $22 for parking and then an additional $50 for taking the keys. When I looked at my car, I noticed he had it on dollies. The wheels were locked in.
“If my car is damaged, you will hear about it,” I said.
“F – U lady, You took your keys and screwed us,” he said. “Give me your keys now.”
I gave him the keys. He took the dollies off my tires and pulled the car around. As he was doing that, he pulled both windows open and yelled at me, “you better look over the car before you leave.”
I just wanted to get out of there. His co-worker was starting to get involved in the conversation too. Two big guys were screaming at me and I didn’t do anything.
As I got into the car I said, “I’m sorry. I paid the price of taking the keys so just let up.” They didn’t. They kept screaming at me.
I pulled down the window and told them where to go…
I made a simple mistake. Why didn’t he ask me if I left my keys in the car? Don’t the guys at the garage take any responsibility? I’m sure lots of people make the same mistake. It’s a habit to take the keys. But to make such a big deal out of a half hour of me being gone? Well that was nonsense and now I’m mad…
