Burned at the gas station

As the price of gas keeps going up, I keep thinking to myself "How much more am I going to get ripped off when filling up my car?" Well, I apparently got ripped off a lot more.

I went to dinner with my aunt visiting from CA. I was running a bit low on cash and I actually didn't expect the dinner to cost so much. So I headed over to the ATM to grab some cash. Only new bills came out, any day I would have been happy to get crisp new bills, but this day would be different.

On the way home, I noticed I was a bit low on fuel so I headed over to a gas station to fill up. In this day of age, we have to prepay for gas before we begin filling up because there have been countless cases where people would fill up their gas tanks and just jet afterwards without paying. So anyways, I go prepay at the cashier and give him 40 bucks. When I gave it to him, I felt that I might have given him an extra 20 dollar bill because the bills were so new, they easily stuck together. While I began my fill up, I counted my money again. Sure enough, I was short 20 dollars. I counted a few more times just to make sure before I confronted the cashier but it ended up with the same result. I walked over to the cashier and asked politely that I may have given him an extra 20 dollar bill and if he could check. He showed me the receipt that I only paid 40 dollars. I told him that was not the case because I thought I gave him 40 dollars but I believed one of the 20 dollars could have stuck together and made it seem like I only gave him 40 dollars. He told me, that his shift ended 7 hours later and we can check then. I quickly declined that offer and asked him to check his register now. It was not busy and I was the only one at the time at the counter. He finally opened the register and checked. I told him to look if there were any 20 dollar bills stuck together. He didn't check earnestly and closed the register right away. One of the customers behind me heard my complaint and he told me if I got brand new bills from an ATM, then the serial numbers on the bills should go sequentially. I never knew that fact and thanked the patron for his wisdom. I then asked the cashier to open the register one more time to check. He followed my request. We quickly glanced at the bills for the serial number. I in the meanwhile checked my bills. 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90 were all in my possession. When glancing at the bills the cashier had, I saw 82 and 83. I could not see 84 anywhere in sight. He then quickly put the bills back at the register and looked at me like I did something wrong and quickly told me to get on my way. I complied before I did anything I would regret. I bet that fool pocketed the extra 20 dollars because there is no reason why 84 would not be there. He would not put it in the register because then he would have a surplus of cash when he closes the register at the end of the night. I knew with the situation now happened, it would just be his word against mine before a 3rd party would have to stop, of course, that 3rd party would probably have been the police. It was my fault in the beginning for being so careless, but it is sad to know there are dishonest people like that guy that exist, even after I called him out on it. Whatever, what is done is done. I'll never return to the Exxon gas station on the intersection of little river turnpike and braddock road.

I guess next time I should use my credit card....