26 September, 2005
Opportunity Knocks
Today, in between trains at Birmingham New Street, I called in at the over-priced WHSmith's.
When my turn finally came to hand over money, I stepped up and reached for my wallet. I was using my card, because I only had a five pound note in cash, but as I pulled out my wallet, the five pound note fluttered free and landed just by my feet.
There was quite a queue, so instead of picking up the fiver first, I handed over my card to the woman behind the counter. As I was doing this, a guy came and stood right next to me.
He started inspecting the very limited range of confectionery that is placed by the till.
The woman behind the counter wanted to see another example of my signature (like I can do two the same!), so I was standing there for longer than normal.
All this time, the guy next to me is desperately trying to get his hands on the fiver from under his foot.
He tried dropping something next to it and bending down tutting at his own clumsiness.
He tried inspecting the bottom of his tracksuit leg.
Unfortunately for him, every time he tried to shuffle his foot, or put his hand near it, I made sure to be looking right at him.
Once my transaction was complete, all of the items were bagged up and the counter woman and I had been through the very British ping pong of thank yous, I decided he wasn't going to take the opportunity I'd been giving him to do the right thing.
I asked him to move his foot because my five pound note was under it. When he did, he pretended (badly) to be surprised, dropped the paper back on the stand and walked straight off.
I don't know how people have the guts to do something like that. Even though it was pretty obvious that I was watching his foot all through the pantomime, he still didn't take the chances I was giving him to go from opportunistic thief to good-natured passer-by.
The only reason I even noticed any of this was because I saw the five pound note fall to the floor, felt it leave my hand and watched it land. I'm not usually the kind of person that notices what's happening around them, so how many times have I lost money to people like this?
