Pop Culture Yay

This afternoon I routinely went to the BP station to fill up a tank of gas. My car was on E, so naturally, I felt a gas station was a logical place to go. Little did I know the ludacrisy that would be awaiting me. Here’s how it all went down…

I’m driving and think “Hm, need gas. There’s gas station. I’ll go there.” Then, coughing attack. cough cough cough. The black lung hit me. Think: “Ok, I’ll get a cheap ass bottle of gas station brand water to quiet my cough. I will pump the gas then go inside and pay for fuel and a refreshing bottle of water together.”

Pump Gas.

Go inside. Mmmm water. cough cough. PERFECT.

“Hello! How are you? I would like this and the gas on pump one.”

“Sure thing sweetie. Is that debit?”

“No ma’am, its a BP card. So I guess that’s credit?”

“Ah, yes. It is credit. I will take that, thank you very much. Wait, who’s Mark?”

“Pardon?”

“Mark. The name on the card says Mark.”

“Oh, that’s my dad. The gas cards are in his name. Is that a problem?”

“Um, yeah. I can’t run this card for you. Don’t you have another method of payment?”

“No, I don’t have any of my other cards with me. I do have a license that has the same last name, might that help?” (I find this suitable, seeing as our name is far from “Smith” or “Jones”)

“I suppose so. We’ll have to see…” (ok lady, either you take a matching name or you don’t…)

Go to car. Get ID. Woman stares.

“Ok, here it is. I’m sorry about this. I use that card all the time.”

“Well, you have to use it at the pump. You should have put it in the pump. I’m not sure what I can do”

Stares at ID and credit card for a good 3-4minutes.

I wait awkwardly deciding if it would be wrong for me to reach out and snag my water. cough. cough.

“Well, I am going to run it. But you need to put it in at the pump. This is not what I am supposed to do. I am supposed to cut this up, fax info to corporate, and call security. No other business would do this for you. Its illegal. You should go to jail for this. If you were at Belk’s for example, they would have none of this. They would take you and call the police.”

She literally said, “You should go to jail for this.” For $28 worth of gas and a $.99 cent bottle of water that probably came from the sink in the back, really?

I appreciate the security but come on. How about checking IDs when it counts, like when I buy massive amounts of items at Target or a month’s worth of groceries?

And Belk would call the cops? Hmm, tell that to all my new clothes senior year of high school. Or, maybe you should talk to the thousands of diet colas and iced green teas that Exxon has provided me over the years. Thanks dad.

So ladies and gentlemen, the moral of the story is, “If you are going to steal someone’s credit card, you better use the pump.”

Posted on November 20th, 2006 by Melissa
Filed under: Uncategorized