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…
Hil, first of all, they’re just about equally responsible as you are since it’s THEIR job to make sure they GET the keys. Second, you should call 311 and see about filing a grievance against the garage for the way they treated you. Then, find out which of the parking chains owns the dump and complain about the way they abused you. You made a mistake but so did they! And they had ZERO right to curse at you. Complain and complain LOUDLY!
Hill, sorry to hear about this, but it seems to be their way of letting you know how little they really are compared to real life in the big city. I’m sure the BBB would love to hear about their tirade regarding this episode. The fact that they had your car on dollies shows that they’ve had this happen before and were prepared to move it without belittling you. Also, we had a saying in the Police Dept. ” either give the summons or the speech, not both”. Unfortunately, you were subjected to both, hope the meeting was worth your time & effort, see you soon. That’s just my two cents from your friendly security guy, Tony P.
Thanks for your comments! I really appreciate your support. I thought maybe I did something worse than leave my keys…
Great plates by the way. There’s nothing better than putting your name out there for all to see.