I keep a stack of quarters in a small tray built into the center console of my car.
I’ve been doing this for years. After all, you never know when you’ll have to fork out some change at a parking meter.
I always keep the tray full, because if you let any gaps develop in the tray, the remaining quarters start clanking together in a most annoying fashion.
Another thing that’s been happening for years?  THose quarters being stolen by the guys at the local car wash, a place called “Checkered Flag”. They swipe them while cleaning the interior of my Mitsubishi Eclipse.
I couldn’t care less about the money. Hell, if the guys are that hard up for money, I’d happily tip them an extra few bucks. But it’s annoying to lose fifty cents or a dollar in quarters every time I take my car in to get it cleaned.
There are two possibilities here. Either they think I won’t notice that my change tray, which was full and silent when I drove in, is now rattling like cheap aluminum siding in a strong wind. Or they just don’t care if I notice.
Every time I go in there, I mean to talk to the manager about this. Then again, there’s a part of me that says “Hey, you have all this money and they have to work twelve hours a day in order to put food on the table — let it go.”
The thing is, if they’re stealing money out of my car, who knows what they’re stealing out of other people’s vehicles…
Hi Ron, that’s a bit too easy. Usually I like your articles, but this one goes beyond my understanding. Opportunities make thieves. So get the money out of the tray before and give the guys a tip. That’s MUCH better than complaining on the web.
Wow. So you’re sayin’ its his fault for leaving the quarters in there?
“Opportunities make thieves.” With all due respect, what a load of crapola. Every one of us has opportunity to steal every day, yet even with all the opportunity, I still know what’s right.
Do criminals no longer carry any blame?
I gotta go with GC on that one. That is a load of “crapola” from Markus.
If you go to a place like that it should not have to be an event where you have to scavange everything of minute value from your car before going in there.
It is a business, and they should operate with some ethics. Nothing excuses someone stealing from another, regardless of how rich they are, or how poor you might be.
There is no excuse…