Only In Citrus County, Florida

About two weeks after my Incident At the Pound, I had another experience with helping Citrus County residents get on their feet that I’ll laugh about when I tell my grandchildren about it.  But I’m not laughing now.

So, I show up at a gas station, staying out of trouble (which is rare) and minding my own business (which is also rare).  I’m standing in line to buy a Diet Coke before I fill up, when I see a girl in her mid 20’s crying as she’s using the gas station cordless (landline) phone.  She makes a few phone calls while I’m waiting to pay for my soda, and no one seems to be answering.  Completely discouraged and on the verge of a complete break down, she rests her elbow on the counter and puts her hands in her arms.

Reader, I’ll tell you the truth – it broke my heart.  I had to do something.  (Please, I don’t mind – call me Joe!)

I asked her what the issue was, and she pointed outside to a car that was on the side of the road.  Through the tears, she mentioned that she was out of gas and needed to go pick up her son (who was about 20 minutes away) and that she had called everyone she knew for a ride with no luck.

No problem here – I’d bring her to go pick up the money and then bring her back here to her car!  After I presented the idea, she looked mildly confused but accepted my offer.  I paid for my drink, headed outside, and put $10 bucks in my tank.  Normally, I fill my tank up each time I’m at the gas station, but this time, I knew I was below $40 or so in my checking account.

As I was feeding my car, the thought hit me – “Is her confused look because there IS no money, and I’m going to bring her 20 minutes away to find this out? Heck NO!  I will NOT be duped this time!”  Well, I walked back on inside the gas station (where she was no calmly but nervously waiting), and I presented the new idea.  “Change of plans,” I said, “Let’s push your car up to the gas pump and I’ll put $20 into your tank.”

Her eyes lit up, most likely because she was wondering what she’d do when I realized she had no money.  We walked outside to her car, she got in the drivers side, and I pushed the car the 50 odd yards it had to go to reach the pump.  Exhausted, sweaty and gross, I swiped my card and said, “Alright, $20’s all yours!”

She must have said “Thank you” a thousand times. (Which was refreshing because Shaniqua didn’t say it a single time!)  I smiled with a pride knowing that I’d helped a fellow Citrus County resident out of a bind, and said, “Just pay it forward!  Make sure you help someone else!” That was the end of it!

I walked away, drove home, and took a nap.  Later on that night,  headed out to CVS to buy another Diet Coke.  The $.89 charge came onto the register, I swiped my card, entered my pin, and BAM – “Declined.” What??!  How could that be?  $10 into my tank, $20 into her tank, which means I still had about $10 bucks left in my checking account.  Whatever, I turned red, apologized to her, waved and smiled to all the other people who thought I was a dumbass, and went home.  The first thing I did was pull up my bank account online, and looked at my recent activity.

I quickly learned that this young lady wasn’t going to pay it forward and help another person.  She was going to pay it forward to pay herself.  She didn’t put $20 into her tank – she put over $45. She filled up her tank!  Helping out this girl didn’t cost me the original $20 I deemed appropriate – the girl spent another $25, and then I had to pay a bank fee of $35 because I went negative in my account.

Gas in your car – $10 dollars.
Gas in her car – $75 dollars.
Knowing you helped another human being screw you?  – Priceless.

Just call me Joe – that’s spelled, “d-u-m-b-a-s-s.”

Only in Citrus County.

I spent $75 dollars to fill the tank on a Kia with an 8 gallon tank.