Buzz Kill

About fifteen years or so ago my son, my wife and I were going to dinner at a restaurant in West Lafayette, Indiana. When we got to the restaurant,valet parking was available but to save the money I parked in a a relatively empty parking lot across the street.  I did not notice the "No Parking" sign with the "towing" warning. We had a nice dinner together. After the dinner we put some take home boxes of leftovers in the trunk of the car and walked to a bookstore. Later the man at the tow lot told us that coming to the car and then leaving the car again is what prompted the towing. I don't know who was watching or why that mattered, but that's what he said. When we walked back to where we had parked, the car was gone. The large parking lot was still virtually empty. It was then that I saw the "No Parking" sign with the tow warning.  I had just not noticed it before that moment.

All of this happened on a Saturday night and my wife and I were planning to leave for home the next morning which was about a seven hour drive. We both needed to be back at work on Monday. It would have been a major inconvenience to wait till Monday to retrieve our car. I called the number on the sign. A man answered and I inquired about my car.  He told me that he had the car, we owed him $140 cash and that they closed at 7:30pm and that they were closed on Sunday. We had about 20 minutes to find an ATM, get the cash and then find the tow lot. We got there with the money with a few minutes to spare. The man at the lot was sitting behind a thick glass window with a half moon opening like at a bank. I asked him why they towed the car from an empty lot and he said something like, "The sign warned you that the car would be towed" without really answering my question. That's when he explained the bit about leaving the car for the second time.

As I handed him the money through the window and as he took the money, I tried to think of something really mean and hateful to say. Short of wishing him bodily harm, I said the meanest thing that I could think of. Before I let go of the money, I looked him in the eye and said, "I hope your dog dies." The look on his face was that he did have a dog.

Yesterday afternoon I saw the Mr. Rogers movie, It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood with my wife and good friends.  I could have been more kind to that man at the tow lot. People are doing the best they can do under their circumstances. He was just doing his job.