Monday, May 17, 2010

Good Deed Gone Bad

We were just loading our groceries in the car down at the Aldi on Western when an older lady (probably younger than me only in my opinion LOOKED a lot older) comes up and starts pleading with us to take her up to Schnuks crying she was desperate, her son was in a car accident. We told her we would take her but we would have to make one stop first. Mark was suppose to get a signature from one of the board members and told him we would be there on our way home from Aldis.
She agrees and climbs in the back seat and immediately asks us if we're Christian. (Everyone knows a Christian is an easy mark.) While Mark is getting the signature she tells me that her son said he ran out of gas on University and someone hit him. She didn't want him to call the police because of no insurance so she just had to ge there fast. We pass a police car and the cop is smoking, she notices that and says I'm surprised they are allowed to smoke. Mark told her I don't think they allow the prisoners to smoke and she very loudly yelled you better believe THAT! Then as we are driving up University she tells me the car is fine, but her son must have gas to get to work at Burger King on North Knoxville and she has to find money. I found $2.00 on the dash of the truck earlier and had put it in my pocket, pulled it out and told her she could have it. Mark gave me his wallet and I told her I would see if I could find some dollars from him. She told me it would be better if I could find a $20.00 but that wasn't going to happen. By this time we were getting near Metro Center and it is raining and she tells Mark to just let her out there. Mark says, "no, I want to see how much damage is done to your car." She tells us she has diabetes and is suppose to walk a lot and she really should get out to exercise. Then Mark suggested since it is raining that wouldn't be a good idea. She said just because she is sweet doesn't mean shes going to melt. We asked her what kind of car and she says "a Chevy." So instead of stopping Mark starts to drive around the Metro Center parking lot to look for a Chevy. Less than a minute later she yells, "there it is, right there" pointing to a small blue Hundai. We drive up to the car and Mark says "but there's no damage on it" and I say "it has Indiana license plates on it." Then she says, OH well it looks just like mine so we leave that car and start driving through the Schnuks parking lot. We only got up to the first row of cars when she tells us, "well it's not here, my son must have gotten help so I guess you can take me home." Now that was amazing she could tell her battered car was not in that parking lot, the lot was pretty full and her eyesight must have been tremendous to be able to know it wasn't there with one quick look. She holds up her hand to me and says, "just look at how I'm shaking. I've had 2 bad things happen, my niece is in the hospital right now having a baby." That doesn't have the desired affect of us giving her more money. She asks where I work and when I tell her I work on a farm she says that must pay a LOT. That was the biggest joke of ALL. When she finds out I don't really have any money and don't make a lot it was like, OK just get me back to the south end.
We start driving back down Western, then left on King drive. She had us drop her off at Roosevelt Magnet school. We never saw her go in a house because we were laughing so hard. So yes, we were scammed but the entertainment value was probably worth the gas and time. Our ice cream was pretty soft by the time we finally made it home.

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