OT: Best Buy

[rogercv1 at gmail.com (Roger concha)]

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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



On 12/20/05, Mike Smith <smithma7@gmail.com> wrote:
> Spending money at their store... that'll teach them!  :P
>
> On 12/20/05, Bennett, Christopher P ET1 MARMC 1230B <
> chris.p.bennett@navy.mil> wrote:
> >
> > I think I am going to buy something there tonight just to thumb my nose at
> > them!  LOL
> >
>
> --
> Mike
> '86 red 16v (der Jahrtausendfeierfalke)
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