Friday, June 26, 2015

The U-Haul and the Garage (a story from years ago)

Maybe you can tell what happened just by the title. As if Saturday and our summer sale didn't have enough excitement of its own!

We laughed a lot but it really wasn't funny.

Why are there signs on parking garages about the height limit being 7 feet or so?
Why is there a bar hanging down so that one can actually SEE how high 7 feet is?
Perhaps the man tried to drive around the side of the bar?!?

They felt it the kids' playroom. Earth tremor? They felt it twice. Once when the man drove in, and again when he tried to back out. A discussion in the playroom about whether it was just the kids running. "It's the kids jumping in the ball pit." "No", said the older smarter one, "something hit the building." It happened right under them. The fire alarm went off in the entire building.

I was in the staff caff with my feet up. After a few minutes of the annoying alarm, I plugged my ears and peeked into the kitchen to see if there was any smoke. No sign of emergency. The announcement came on: "we are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Do not evacuate the building."

The alarm went off for awhile and then came back on. On my way back downstairs I passed Miz C and found out what had happened. I'm sure I laughed. We should have a stupid customer contest.

When I got back to my post, the alarm went off and on a few more times, sending people out of the store either from fear, or to get away from that horrible shrill alarm. When the man drove into the garage, he ripped a lot of the sprinklers from the ceiling which set off the alarm.

I went downstairs to have a look. There was the U-haul stuck between the ceiling and the pavement. Puddles all around. A gash about 20 or 30 feet long in the ceiling with insulation and lights and sprinklers dangling. I tried to see who did it, but it was not clear. Why, after the initial collision, did he keep going? Did he think that the actual ceiling height was higher than the bar? Maybe he panicked. Was he angry? Maybe he lost his cool. Did he have any cool to lose? My mouth was no doubt hanging open. There was a policeman there giving a ticket. A few other coworkers, mostly managers, and a cart guy, all gawking, as I was. Somebody really did this! Unreal. The cart guy said the man had declined insurance when he rented the U-Haul. The fire truck was parked just behind the U-Haul and the firemen were deflating the tires to get the truck out. My, my, my. What does one say about this? I'm pretty sure you and I are not thinking right now about the stupid mistakes we have made in our lives...

When I went back up, I passed Miz P who was sitting on a step. She looked distressed, head in hands; on the phone. What a responsibility to have on your shoulders! Your store. Your baby? I went back up to my post. The alarm finally quit, but not before we lost thousands of customers on a Saturday during the summer sale, which is one of our biggest days for sales of the year.

So we gossiped about it all day. People were saying things like 50 grand, 100 grand, and that the man paid for the damage with his credit card. He is going to be paying for this for a long, long time. I said someone must really like our furniture a lot.... The final figure I heard was $35k. Was that just what he had to pay to fix the garage? Does the store have any coverage for all the lost sales during the time people poured out the doors and did not come back?

I went to get supplies and came back to find Miz P putting away a yellow bag. We talked for a minute. How could anyone do that? She said the poor wife of the U-haul man was in tears and terrified. I said I would be scared to go home with him! She laughed. Miz P spotted the wife coming up from the garage looking shell shocked. Miz P immediately took her under her wing and up to the restaurant for coffee. I felt sorry for the wife, too. When they went up the escalator, Miz P turned and winked at me.