Thanks, I've been around awhile but I tend to lurk. Apparently this thread drew me out.CujoSR wrote:Thank you for all the info Dawn... and BTW welcome to SGT if it hadn't been mentioned before (Bad Marsupials).
For the record the last person to refuse to show ID (or even the card) had a mag recorder in their car. Our people are very good at what they do and have the officers cell phones on speed dial. We (myself included) have a very good relationship with our local law enforcement officers. Although Scabies Girl might have ruined that a bit, but that's another story...
I don't doubt that your coworkers (and you) are really good at what they do, and have very, very few false positives (possibly even none). Suspicious transactions tend to look and feel skeevy in so many ways other than refusing to show ID. I can't imagine any legitimate reason to refuse to show the card itself, for example.
I just grew up with a father who stood on (somewhat irrational) principle at every opportunity, regardless of the consequences. So I'm intimately familiar with the way any kind of arbitrary policy can be mishandled and blown out of proportion. I think I projected him into that scenario.
To stay more SGTish, I'll share a story that stands out in my mind on that topic (and it's money related, so it's OT, yes?)
My parents used to buy checks by the boatload. They bought current checks, which invariably had a deal like "buy 12 boxes of checks and get 2 free". Never one to pass up a bargain, my mother would buy as many as she needed to get the lowest per-check price.
Their bank was bought out, and everyone was getting new account numbers. The bank sent out a letter that said you could bring in your old checks and they would shred and replace them for free. So my dad goes down to the bank with a giant stack of checks and hands them to the teller. "I have a letter that says you'll replace these for free!"
And she looks at the checks, and says "No, that's only bank-issued checks we're replacing for free, and these are printed by someone else. You're out of luck." "The letter doesn't -say- they have to be bank issued. I'd like my checks replaced, please!" They go round and round some, with Dad getting louder and more aggressive all the time. So it isn't long before the bank manager comes out and asks if he can help.
So Dad looks at the manager and says "I have a letter that says you'll replace my checks, and she's refusing. And I want my ATM PIN set to XXXX - which she won't that either." Really loudly, in the middle of a busy bank. Manger tries to get him to calm down and says "you really don't want to tell everyone in the bank what your PIN is." "As far as I can tell, the only person in this bank who wants to steal my money is you, and I have an AXE!"
(Now, Dad does have what he calls an axe. It's a little hatchet, and it was at home, hanging in the garage, but they have no way of knowing if the lunatic in the lobby -actually- has a weapon or not)
Dad yells some more, and they finally escort him into a bank office to minimize the scene he's making. By this point he's screaming that he wants all of his money out of the bank. Right now. In cash. Dad calls my mom up on the phone and says "Call the police. The bank has kidnapped me, and is holding me in an office. There's a guy standing between me and the door!" My mother, having been married to a lunatic for 30 years, goes down to the bank to see if she can smooth things over.
By the time she gets there, he's gone. Apparently the bank had called the police (imagine that), and the police negotiated that he would leave the premises and not file the assault and unlawful detainment charges he wanted to. The bank wouldn't file charges against him either. The bank would give him his replacement checks and he wouldn't come back with his axe to show them that he had one.
Two days later, it's the bank grand opening, with cake and balloons and whatnot. Dad trots himself down and has a piece of cake, hanging around in the lobby. He was very, very disappointed that no one came to talk to him.
