the smedley log - suburban scrawl

Maybe moral superiority will make up the shortfall

Forget the Memorial Day parades. Apparently, I missed the Memorial Day gas sale in Doylestown this year. Poor, poor me.

A local gas station I regularly drive past (and sometimes patronize) was mistakenly selling premium for 32.9/gallon, the result of a glitch that moved the decimal point one place too far to the right on the pumps.

An anonymous woman, apparently more concerned with the immorality of those taking advantage of the impromptu sale than with the actual welfare of the station operator (making a very slim profit on gasoline at its normal price) decided to phone the police.

The police? Really? Did people filling up at just under 33 cents a gallon actually break a law? I don’t think they did. Did they take advantage of an independent business owner? Yeah, probably. Which is why I probably would have said something to the attendant, but call the cops? Please…

The ironic thing about this woman’s actions was that the station probably lost a few hundred dollars more just in the time between her call and when the police actually showed.

I have a name for people like that. Dumbasses. I get annoyed with people who are so damned concerned with the rules that they can’t do the common sense thing and help out the poor station owner. That poor owner just took a bath (in terms of financial loss) and she’s more worried about informing the authorities. Asshole.