Checkers Complaint

A Short:

June 2015

Citizen Complaint - Walk Up

"Dispatch, I've got a citizen driving up to me. Put me out on a citizen walk up, I'll advise status shortly."

I'm sitting in an area where it should be clear I am not open for visiting hours. It's the middle morning, I'm enjoying an ice cold water and a breakfast sandwich, trying to catch up on the previous days' reports. A man, his wife, and his son, pull right up next to my window and roll theirs down.

Now in case you don't know, it's a stressful time to be a cop. I'm not attempting to get any kind of sympathy here, or compare our "plight" with anyone else, but we're all on edge. Don't pull your vehicle side by side with mine. I can't see in your car. I don't know what you're doing... or about to do.

So I pull forward as he tried to park next to my car, and I can almost instantly see the look of bewilderment in his face. It's hilarious. I'm not leaving. I'm just not going to stare at your from a significant point of disadvantage.

I park my vehicle a short distance behind his and approach him like I would any traffic stop. I ask him to show me his hands, turn his vehicle off, and roll his window all the way down. The gentleman complies, and now we're talking. I apologize for the demeanor, but explain, we're always just a little suspicious, maybe next time don't pull right up to the window of a cop?

He understands. He acknowledges the complaint, apologizes, and we move on.

"I have a complaint." He says. "My wife and I are having problems with this Checkers." My eyes are already rolling towards the back of my skull. "This is the second time now we've ordered (insert order here) and were given (insert something other than what they ordered here). The first time, we let it slide. We figured they just messed up our order. But then, one of the chicken burgers had a bone in it!"

He looked at me as if I should have been horrified.

"My son bit into the chicken burger and cut his mouth on the bone. We came back up and complained and they refunded our money and gave us a new burger. Can you believe that? We promised we'd never come back."

Here comes the part where you think to yourself.... wait, what?

"So today, we're feeling hungry and we decided we'd give this checkers another try. We came up and ordered (insert new order here) and they forgot to give us a cheeseburger. When we got home we looked in our bag and my sons order was missing. So we came all the way back up (less than a mile away from home) and complained. They wouldn't even give us what we asked for! I wanted a new order. The guy just reached over the counter, took the bag right out of my hand, and gave me my money back!"

At this point, I have nothing to say and can only respond with, "Okaaaaaaaaaaaay?"

"Well I want to press charges!" He demands. "They can't get away with this! My son still has scars on the inside of his mouth. These people are taking advantage of the people of (my county). I want to charge him with theft! He took the bag right out of my hands."

"...and proceeded to return your money..."

"That's not the point. I'm the customer. The customer is always right."

"...and they're human. They make mistakes just like everyone else in this world. We're not going to assist you in trying to charge them with robbery and theft because your order didn't go as planned. I'm sorry you've have a bad experience at this Checkers, but it is not something the police are going to handle for you. You need to complain to their corporate office or find another place to eat."

The guy just stared at me like I was speaking another language. The fact I wouldn't help him send a hard working kid to jail for getting his order wrong seemed like injustice in his twisted mind. I've had some strange requests before, and although this doesn't take the cake for weirdest, it's definitely the worst case of entitlement I've seen in a while.

The rest of our conversation was short, but it took some work explaining to him what exactly police officers do for a living. Hopefully he gets it now. Hopefully his son, who was sitting in the back of the vehicle the whole time, learned something valuable.