quote:
PUT YOURSELF in Mike Bolesta's place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher's car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta's idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too.
For this, Bolesta, Baltimore County resident, innocent citizen, owner of Capital City Student Tours, finds himself under arrest.
Finds himself, in front of a store full of customers at the Best Buy on York Road in Lutherville, locked into handcuffs and leg irons.
Finds himself transported to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, where he's handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service is called into the case.
Have a nice day, Mike.
"Humiliating," the 57-year old Bolesta was saying now. "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole -- and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."
What we have here, besides humiliation, is a sense of caution resulting in screw-ups all around.
"When I bought the stereo player," Bolesta explains, "the technician said it'd fit perfectly into my son's dashboard. But it didn't. So they called back and said they had another model that would fit perfectly, and it was cheaper. We got a $67 refund, which was fine. As long as it fit, that's all.
"So we go back and pay for it, and they tell us to go around front with our receipt and pick up the difference in the cost. I ask about installation charges. They said, 'No installation charge, because of the mix-up. Our mistake, no charge.' Swell.
"But then, the next day, I get a call at home. They're telling me, 'If you don't come in and pay the installation fee, we're calling the police.' Jeez, where did we go from them admitting a mistake to suddenly calling the police? So I say, 'Fine, I'll be in tomorrow.' But, overnight, I'm starting to steam a little. It's not the money -- it's the threat. So I thought, I'll count out a few $2 bills."
He has lots and lots of them.
With his Capital City Student Tours, he arranges class trips for school kids around the country traveling to large East Coast cities, including Baltimore. He's been doing this for the last 18 years. He makes all the arrangements: hotels, meals, entertainment. And it's part of his schtick that, when Bolesta hands out meal money to students, he does it in $2 bills, which he picks up from his regular bank, Sun Trust.
"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"
At Best Buy, they may have perceived the protest -- but did not sense the comic aspect of 57 $2 bills.
"I'm just here to pay the bill," Bolesta says he told a cashier. "She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money. Like she's doing me a favor."
He remembers the cashier marking each bill with a pen. Then other store personnel began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"
"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."
A Best Buy manager refused comment last week. But, according to a Baltimore County police arrest report, suspicions were roused when an employee noticed some smearing of ink. So the cops were called in. One officer noticed the bills ran in sequential order.
"I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank,'" Bolesta says. "I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'
"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"
Bolesta was then taken to the county police lockup in Cockeysville, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called in.
"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."
Finally, Secret Service agent Leigh Turner arrived, examined the bills and said they were legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."
This will be important news to all concerned.
For Baltimore County police, said spokesman Bill Toohey, "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."
The other day, one of Bolesta's sons needed a few bucks. Bolesta pulled out his wallet and "whipped out a couple of $2 bills. But my son turned away. He said he doesn't want 'em any more."
He's seen where such money can lead.
man arrested for spending a $2 bill
man arrested for spending a $2 bill
I give her sadness and the gift of pain,
a new moon madness and a love of rain.
- - - -Dorothy Parker "The Godmother
a new moon madness and a love of rain.
- - - -Dorothy Parker "The Godmother
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vicious_blood
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elasticwings
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http://www.snopes.com
Couldn't find any "real" news sites reporting the story. Looks like it's just another variation of the "people don't know what $2 bills are" urban legend.
Couldn't find any "real" news sites reporting the story. Looks like it's just another variation of the "people don't know what $2 bills are" urban legend.
I was born a bastard - and then I just got worse.
Actually.... yes this *did* happen...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... 004.column
took 2minutes to find it... keyword: baltimore...
have a great day... (& use $2bills as *much* as possible)
-V
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... 004.column
took 2minutes to find it... keyword: baltimore...
have a great day... (& use $2bills as *much* as possible)
-V
Goth pick-up line # 48- 'Wanna ride in my Porsche?...It's Black..'
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ms.tangledwebs
- Bitchy Prick Tease
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elasticwings
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Geek Squad my ass. I once overheard one of their supposed geeks talking to somebody that was looking to upgrade their video card. They told them that regular PCI was faster than AGP. Another time, I was there with a friend from school, and we stopped them from screwing over some couple looking to network their computers. The ass-clown at Best Buy tried to sell them a four port router plus an eight port hub. He swore up and down to them they had to have both. They had two computers.
"Solaris x86 is now where Linux was 4 years ago"
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_buy
Criticisms
Best Buy has many critics of the way they do business. For instance, Best Buy has been accused of bait and switch tactics, advertising a product and then refusing to sell it at the advertised price. They have been accused of being outrageously pushy in the promotion of extended warranties (called Performance Service Plans or PSPs by Best Buy), often lying or misrepresenting the terms. A consumer advocacy website targeting Best Buy, http://www.bestbuysux.org/ , has received thousands of letters from disgruntled employees and customers, and ranks among the most popular consumer advocacy websites on the Internet.
In 1997, a Reston, Virginia man, Ronald Kahlow, was arrested twice for trespassing while comparison shopping. Kahlow had first taken a laptop into the store to record prices on televisions, then a notepad. Kahlow later filed a civil suit against the company.
In late November 2004, Dell ran an advertisement claiming Best Buy wishes to 'fire' 20% of its customer base. The advertisement was based on a Wall Street Journal interview with the company's CEO, Bradbury Anderson.
On March 8, 2005, the Baltimore Sun reported on a bizarre incident involving a Best Buy store in Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland. The technicians there incorrectly told Mike Bolesta that they were going to waive a $114 car stereo installation fee since they had previously been wrong when they said a certain model would fit in his son's car. When he was later called and told that he had to return to pay the fee, he decided to pay in 57 $2 bills. Apparently, he keeps the rare bills around as a gimmick for the children whom he hosts as owner of Capital City Student Tours.
The female cashier at first refused to accept the $2 bills not knowing that it is actually against federal law not to accept a cash payment. The staff at the Best Buy store thought that the bills were counterfeit, because (1) they had never seen such a denomination before and (2) the ink smeared when the bills were rubbed with a counterfeit detection pen. They called Baltimore County police, who promptly arrested Bolesta and took him to jail. He was freed only after a Secret Service agent explained that the ink on U.S. dollar bills is capable of smearing. The incident was subsequently publicized on numerous blogs and Web sites as an example of the incompetence of Best Buy personnel.
Criticisms
Best Buy has many critics of the way they do business. For instance, Best Buy has been accused of bait and switch tactics, advertising a product and then refusing to sell it at the advertised price. They have been accused of being outrageously pushy in the promotion of extended warranties (called Performance Service Plans or PSPs by Best Buy), often lying or misrepresenting the terms. A consumer advocacy website targeting Best Buy, http://www.bestbuysux.org/ , has received thousands of letters from disgruntled employees and customers, and ranks among the most popular consumer advocacy websites on the Internet.
In 1997, a Reston, Virginia man, Ronald Kahlow, was arrested twice for trespassing while comparison shopping. Kahlow had first taken a laptop into the store to record prices on televisions, then a notepad. Kahlow later filed a civil suit against the company.
In late November 2004, Dell ran an advertisement claiming Best Buy wishes to 'fire' 20% of its customer base. The advertisement was based on a Wall Street Journal interview with the company's CEO, Bradbury Anderson.
On March 8, 2005, the Baltimore Sun reported on a bizarre incident involving a Best Buy store in Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland. The technicians there incorrectly told Mike Bolesta that they were going to waive a $114 car stereo installation fee since they had previously been wrong when they said a certain model would fit in his son's car. When he was later called and told that he had to return to pay the fee, he decided to pay in 57 $2 bills. Apparently, he keeps the rare bills around as a gimmick for the children whom he hosts as owner of Capital City Student Tours.
The female cashier at first refused to accept the $2 bills not knowing that it is actually against federal law not to accept a cash payment. The staff at the Best Buy store thought that the bills were counterfeit, because (1) they had never seen such a denomination before and (2) the ink smeared when the bills were rubbed with a counterfeit detection pen. They called Baltimore County police, who promptly arrested Bolesta and took him to jail. He was freed only after a Secret Service agent explained that the ink on U.S. dollar bills is capable of smearing. The incident was subsequently publicized on numerous blogs and Web sites as an example of the incompetence of Best Buy personnel.
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