A Very Very Bad Day

A grumpy old man has a bad day

Turning on the faucet to fill the coffeepot, the old man found that he had no water. He headed to the basement only to find the light wouldn’t turn on. He grabbed a flashlight as he saw nothing that ran on electricity was working.

The breakers were all on, so he thought it might be the whole neighborhood. He reached his front porch just in time to see the gas company truck pull up. The driver got out and grabbed his tools before he came up to the house.

“I have a work order here to shut off your gas and remove the meter.”

“What? This is late fall why would you be removing my meter at this time of the year?”

“Says owner demanded we remove it.”

“Show me that.”

The driver handed him the work order, and it looked right. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. When he tried to call the gas company, he realized he had no service.

“I need my paperwork back, sir.”

The old man flung it at him and stalked into the house to grab up his landline. There was no dial tone. Slamming the phone down, he stormed out again. the driver was working on the meter.

“Stop that! Stop it right now! This is a mistake and as soon as I can call the gas company I’ll have this all straightened out.”

“I’m sorry sir, but I have seven more service calls to make so unless you can make that call right now I will do my job.”

“Then, let me use your cell phone. Mine isn’t working.”

The driver scratched his head.“I’m not real comfortable lending my cell phone to you, sir. No offense, but you seem a little odd.”

The old man stomped down the steps and headed next door. The Howards would let him use their phone, they best let him use it or he would deal with them. Tod Howard answered the door.

“Hi,” Todd said with a slight quiver in his voice.“Did Timmy get too loud last night?”

“Shut up and give me your phone.”

Tod’s hand shook as he handed over his phone.

The old man snatched it.“Now go away. I’ll bring it back when I’m done.”

 

***

 

The gas company wasn’t the only one, someone had called all his utilities pretending to be him and had them discontinue service. They had all been so polite as they told him they would be glad to have him reconnected if he would only pay a service fee. When he attempted to pay to have his utilities turned back on he learned, they had canceled his credit cards. His frustration grew as a call to his bank proved that they had frozen his accounts.

He came out of his house dressed and slammed the door behind him. Stomping down the steps, he yelled at the gas company employee as he climbed into his car. Pulling out of his driveway, he was determined to go to the bank to straighten that out first. He had only gotten two blocks from his house when he was stopped by the police. The police pulled their service pistols as they exited their car.

“Please exit the vehicle and keep your hands where we can see them.”

He obeyed, wondering what was happening.

The cops approached him.“Hands on the hood of the car.”

“What is this about?”

“You know what this is about. Thought nobody saw you snatch that little girl, did you? They got your license.”The one cop said.

“Give me a reason, you sicko. I wouldn’t even think twice about putting a bullet in you.”The other growled.

Confused the old man obeyed. They patted him down and cuffed him. He pleaded his innocence all the way to the police station and as he was processed. He hated doing it, but he called his son when they offered him his one phone call.

When his son arrived with a lawyer, it became clear something was wrong. He, his son, and the lawyer were waiting in a room when a ranking officer came in.

“I’m sorry, sir. It would seem, someone entered a false report on the system showing your car was used to snatch a six-year-old girl. No such crime took place. You have our deepest apologies.”

“All you youngsters will pay for this indignity. I want the names and badge numbers of the two idiots who arrested me, now!”The old man shouted.

“Dad, calm down, it sounds like somebody was playing a joke on you and used the-”

“Shut up and just sit there.”

“Sir, since this seems to be handled I’ll be leaving, but I would advise watching what you say. Say the wrong thing now and you will ruin your chances at a court case later.”The lawyer looked at the old man’s son.“I will send you a bill for my time.”

It took an hour to get out of the police station. The son wanted to take his dad home, but the old man insisted they go visit his bank. It was a national bank with its corporate office in New York City.

The old man was livid at this point and when he entered he announced at the top of his voice.“I want to speak to the manager now!”

A guard moved to deal with him and the old man turned on him.“You touch me I will sue you and this bank. Get me the manager this minute.”

A portly gentleman came out of his office.“I’m the manager how can I help you?”

“You can give me my money.”The old man regretted his words the second they left his mouth. The guard drew down on him. The manager threw up his hands and somebody hit an alarm.

It took two hours to clear up the misunderstanding. The son had stepped in, taking the lead as his dad sat in a chair staring off into space. He was wondering how his life had gotten so out of control in one day.

The bank's problem was that he was dead. Not really it seemed somebody had hacked their system and made it look like he had died and his accounts were frozen until his next of kin could be located.

They cleared the problem up and his accounts were unfrozen. The son next took him to the cell phone store and had his service turned back on. After that, it was several calls, all made by the son to get his utilities turned back on. They made these calls at the son’s house and after dinner, he drove his much-subdued father home. They pulled up in front of the house to find that it was all locked up. The notice taped to the door said it was being sold for non-payment of property taxes.