On my way into work this morning, a young woman stopped me on Main Street and asked where the courthouse was. I am very accustomed to this question because people often get confused between the federal and county courthouses, particularly because they are within two blocks of each other. She was holding a copy of a traffic citation so I pointed further down Main Street and told her the county courthouse was just in the next block. She said thanks and went on her way.
After a few steps, she turned and looked at me again. We had the following conversation:
Woman: Do you know what happens if you don't put money in those things?
Me: You mean the parking meters?
Woman: Yeah.
Me: They give you a ticket.
Woman: Really? Do you have to pay it?
Me: Um, yeah.
I have spent most of the morning trying to understand how a person does not know you have to put money in the parking meters.
I too am sometimes aghast as to how incompetent people can be. The ticket thing I can understand she might have mistook that for a "warning" ticket. But parking meters; if they didn't expect you to pay for parking, then why put up parking meters. Duh!
ReplyDeleteI am surprised by nothing.
ReplyDeleteMy job often requires me to get people's zip code and/or area code. I am amazed at how many people do not know the difference. And I am NOT talking about a momentarty lapse. There are people who Do. Not. Know. About. Zip. Codes.
I worked for a subprime lender in Florida, doing refinances, 2nd mortgages, things like that. I couldn't believe some of the things people didn't know. Examples:
ReplyDeleteEmployer's telephone number
Income
Social Security Number
Full name of employer