good dolphin wrote:
Shadier than tow truck driving: There is a strip mall next to the Dairy Queen on Lake in Wilmette. It is pretty much all 9-5 type businesses that lease on site. The Dairy Queen parking lot gets crowded at night so people park in the unused parking lot of the strip mall. The mall employed some company that has some little weasel hid in the bushes waiting for you to park and go into DQ. Rather than tell you not to park there, the person puts some quick boot contraption on your car then waits with his phone for you to get back from your five minute trip to collect the three figure fine to remove the boot.
I built a sound system for a Jamaican guy, Craig, who was a good customer of mine. His credit was good with me. He lived far south and my shop was in Skokie. One day he called me up and he said he had the balance of my money and we tried to figure out a place to meet in between. I was going out to dinner that night near Boystown so I suggested we meet at the Dunkin Donuts on Belmont & Clark. I got there early and grabbed a parking space in the small parking lot. I went in and ordered a milkshake so no one would hassle me about parking there. It was a warm summer night and I sat outside drinking my shake and waiting for Craig to show up. There was some douchebag- one of these guys who always wanted to be a cop but wasn't even good enough for that- patrolling the parking lot. He had a couple of boots over in the corner.
Eventually Craig shows up. He's in a beater car with three other black guys. They pulled in the lot and we exchanged niceties, talked for a few minutes. Then Craig pulled out my cash and handed it to me. Suddenly the pseudo-cop comes running over like a complete fucking lunatic screaming about us doing a drug deal in "his" parking lot. I was just like, "Hey, fuck you, pal. I'm a customer drinking my milkshake and these are my friends. Mind your fucking business." He kept ranting and I was going to force the issue and make the guy call real cops, but then Craig told me he was just going to leave and let's not make a big deal about it. I realized they probably had weed in the car. And the black guys were probably going to be the ones who got beefed on. I had to check my privilege.
After the Jamaicans left I got in my car and started pulling out. The guy was glowering at me. I threw what was left of my milkshake at him. I missed but it made a mess in the middle of the lot. I hope he had to clean it up.