I am having dinner with my dad and older sister. I got straight As in school, and she’s doing the older sibling thing.

Sister: “You may have gotten the book smarts in this family, but I got the street smarts.”

Me: “The corner doesn’t count.”

Dad: *Chokes on his wine while laughing*

This story was told to me by a coworker back in the 1980s, and it happened in the 1950s. He went to a car dealer to look into possibly buying a new car. The salesman asked for his car keys so they could appraise his current car to give him accurate trade-in information. [Coworker] gave over his keys, the salesman turned them over to someone else who drove off with the car (supposedly to the service area in the back), and [Coworker] proceeded to browse the lot with the salesman. After about an hour, [Coworker] decided he wasn’t interested in any of the cars that they had, so he told the salesmen that he wasn’t interested and that he wanted his car and keys back so he could leave.

The salesman just told him a bald-faced lie: “We don’t have your car; I guess you’ll just have to buy one from us.”

After a little back-and-forth, [Coworker] walked away and up to the nearest pay phone, where he called the police to report his car being stolen. The police arrived and asked him for his story, and he explained what had happened. The police then approached the salesman and explained that he could either produce the car and keys, be arrested for car theft, or name who he’d handed the car keys to. He chose to give a name.

The police then tracked that person down and repeated the process. They repeated this until they got the car and were able to return it to [Coworker]. Alas, he chose not to press charges.

Now, I don’t think any car dealer in the USA today would pull this BS, but if they do it to you, please, press theft charges so they don’t do it to someone else.

We have our fair share of homeless people in my town — the usual ones at the end of exit ramps with signs or at the lights of highways. Usually, I don’t give them anything because realistically, usually don’t have anything TO give. But one day, I’ve had a decent day and actually find myself with a couple of bucks on hand.

I see one particular man at a freeway light often, and I know some of his story. He does use any money collected to purchase food and drink (not alcohol that I’ve seen, not that it’s any of my business anyway) and will accept items graciously, not just cash. I pull up to the light, wave him over, and hand him the $4 I had. He thanks me.

Then, he happens to walk across the intersection to the same gas station I was also heading to in the first place. I go in to get gas, and he grabs some of the hot food and a cheap fountain drink. All good, right?

NOPE.

A woman comes in, immediately storms over to the register, and demands a manager. I’m only mildly paying attention because I just need gas. A manager comes forward, and this woman points at me.

Woman: “I need the police here! That woman gave that drug addict money outside of your establishment!”

She continues with a slew of other really random and ever-growing nonsense.

The man I helped, a very interested customer, and I are staring at her. The manager looks so confused. So, I chime in.

Me: “Regardless of the fact that it isn’t this woman’s business, I gave the guy a few bucks across the street, and he’s buying food with it.”

Manager: “Uh… okay.”

The woman isn’t happy. She is screaming that, obviously, the station is a front for drugs and all sorts of crazy stuff.

At this point, I’ve lost interest. The man buys his food and walks out. I get to register and ask for gas. Is the woman done? HAHA! No.

Woman: “If you’re going to pay for that guy’s drugs, then you need to buy my gas!” *To the cashier and the manager* “Put $40 on pump [number] — on her dime!”

And she stormed out.

We all just blinked at each other for a moment.

I chuckled a bit and told them how much gas I needed. I was going to just ignore it, but I’m petty. I told them to put $1 on her pump.

Her screaming when the pump stopped at a dollar was beautiful. I got my gas and left, while she was storming back into the station. Best dollar I’ve ever wasted. And I’m glad she didn’t actually harass the poor guy just trying to eat.

A customer calls the helpline for our huge international phone company with over a million customers.

Customer: “Hi, it’s Ted. I want to make a change to my phone plan.”

Call Center Agent: “No problem! Can you please provide your last name, phone number, and account number?”

Customer: “I’m not giving you any of that!”

Call Center Agent: “I will need a name to find the account, sir. Maybe your email address to start—”

Customer: “My name is Ted! You should be able to use that!”

The caller is escalated to me, and at the level where I work, f***s are not available to be given. I go through the same song and dance with Ted…

Me: “Ah, here it is: the only account out of over a million customers with the name Ted.”

Ted: “Really?”

Me: “No, there are over two hundred of you. Call back when you know which one you are.” *Click*

I had been diligently paying my insurance premiums for several years with the same company, without any accidents, claims, or tickets — until the time of this incident. The first week of December 2023 in the dark, late, snowy evening, a truck lost the items in the back of it on a blind turn, and my husband drove right over a big chunk of metal. It pierced the engine oil pan and oil spewed all over the roadway. (The truck driver took off and left everything there, and our dash camera unfortunately did not capture the license plate. Thankfully, the video was enough, and we were not at fault for the damages.)

My car was undrivable, so we had it towed to our place and called insurance in the morning.

A few days later, an insurance-designated tow truck showed up to collect the car and deliver it to the mechanic shop. The man exited the tow truck, put a tiny dog down on the ground (it looked to be a ShihTzu/Chihuahua cross), and got back in his truck to reverse up to my car.

The little dog ran directly behind the back wheels of the massive tow truck.

Us: “STOP! THE DOG!”

Thankfully, the driver stopped in time, but the now terrified dog ran into the open door of our garage and proceeded to urinate all over our floor and on top of some items. At that point, I was already frustrated with the guy.

Me: “Can you please put your dog back in your truck?”

Driver: “No, no, he’s friendly. He’s fine.”

As he was saying this, I went to pick up our now pee-soaked belongings, to which the dog whipped around and snapped at my hand. He didn’t make contact, but now I was livid and had to walk away to cool down.

As the car had no engine oil in it, I wrote out on several pieces of paper, “DO NOT START – NO ENGINE OIL”, and taped them to the steering wheel, gear shift, and front windshield to ensure that nobody tried to fire it up and wrecked my engine. I then handed the tow driver the key fob for the car (push start, no actual metal key) that had the same note taped to the keychain.

While loading my car, the driver rolled both front windows down to steer and push, and he then proceeded to leave… with the windows still down. In December, in Canada. I immediately called my insurance company to have them tell the driver to stop and roll them up so my interior wouldn’t get destroyed from the snow and slush, and they did so immediately while I was on hold. I called the mechanic shop and asked them to please let me know if there was any interior damage and if the windows were up when he arrived.

The shop was a thirty-minute drive from my place. This is important later.

Thirty-five minutes later, the shop phoned me and notified me that I had not given the driver my car key, and they couldn’t unlock the steering wheel to unload it and get it into a bay. After some back-and-forth with the driver, he told them that he must have accidentally left it on the deck of the tow truck after rolling my windows up, so it could be anywhere along a 30-km stretch of highway.

By that point, I was beyond angry with this tow driver, and just shocked. I grabbed my spare key (which has issues and has never worked properly) and drove the thirty minutes to the shop to drop it off, while on the phone with my insurance to add the key to my insurance claim.

FYI: the windows on the car were closed when I arrived. This is also important.

After about fifty phone calls and emails, we are now at the end of April, and they JUST approved my car key. The in-between? My insurance adjuster quit a week after I filed my claim and didn’t tell anyone about the key. The new adjuster didn’t know how to work the computer system, and my claim was escalated to a manager. I was called a liar by this manager, accused of losing my own key, and accused of insurance fraud.

According to the tow truck driver, he dismantled my doors and manually forced the windows up on the side of the highway, and he still made it to the repair shop in thirty-five minutes. I got a letter from Ford Canada, advising that the time needed to dismantle my doors to manually shut a window is fifteen to eighteen minutes PER DOOR. There simply wasn’t enough time between the time he left — as confirmed by my security cameras — and the time he arrived at the shop — as confirmed by the recorded phone call and timestamp from the repair shop.

I forwarded the letter to the insurance adjuster. He called me and reiterated that they would NOT cover my key — that I had to file a new claim and pay a $500 deductible, and it would count as “at fault” against my license. When I declined and asked for that in writing to forward to the Council, he hung up on me and didn’t answer any of my calls.

I contacted the Insurance Council and reported the misconduct and was escalated to the Complaints Manager with my insurance company. I didn’t hear from her for two months. I called again and again as I had a repaired car that wasn’t drivable due to the faulty spare key, no main key, and no rental/loaner car. I called the Insurance Council again and finally got a call from the Complaints Manager. Another month went by without word.

I called again and requested a callback on Monday from the Complaints Manager as she had been out of the office the previous week. I got a call on the following THURSDAY — ten days after my last call — from the same adjuster who had called me a liar and hung up on me. He begrudgingly told me that they had finally approved my car key at a local dealership.

The cost? $672.

They lost a customer for life, who has paid over $15,000 in premiums over the last several years with them, who has sent them dozens of customers as I work in the automotive industry and am asked often who I recommend, and has received registered complaints and bad reviews against them, over $672. I hope it was worth it!