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Occasionally when I'm working in a vehicle, I'll find some odd things. We take rear seats out a lot and it's not unusual to find oceans of loose change or the occasional lost set of keys or wallet under the seat. I don't think I'll ever top the following story, though, and it's entirely true and unembellished in any way.
A customer brought a '99 Grand Am to me for a new CD player. Nice, quick, easy car to work on. I took the dash apart, unscrewed and removed the old radio, and prepped the new one for installation. As I was about to put it in I glanced into the radio cavity and saw something lying on top of the key cylinder.
In a Grand Am, the key switch is on the dash, not the column; just to the left of the radio opening. It's also below and to the right of the instrument cluster. Some people like to prop pictures and things up on their instrument panel, and now and then one will slide back behind the dash and end up in the radio cavity. In this case, what I saw was a fairly large fold of cash, and the outside bill was a fifty. The whole thing was pretty dusty.
So I called over my co-worker, just because I kind of thought I wanted a witness to all this. His eyes popped out, probably looking much like mine a few seconds before. He even took a picture on his cell-phone camera, just because we knew no one was going to believe this.
The customer was waiting in our waiting area, right next to the bay. So I called him over and asked him casually if he's ever had the radio out of his car before. No, it's the same radio that was in when he bought it. How long has he had the car? Just a couple months.
Well, I said, we found this behind your radio. I held out the stack of cash. Cue the eye-popping again.
I was a bit taken aback by how fast he snatched it out of my hand.
I proceeded with the installation while my co-worker chatted with the customer, who was now in a very jolly mood. Turns out the total in the roll was $950.
Did I get a tip? No. Well, fine, it's not my money; he can do what he wants with it. Did I get a thank-you? No.
My reward was more work. Turns out the customer decided he could now afford a more expensive CD player. So I had to remove the one I'd just installed, let him take it up and exchange it, and put in the new one he picked out.
A customer brought a '99 Grand Am to me for a new CD player. Nice, quick, easy car to work on. I took the dash apart, unscrewed and removed the old radio, and prepped the new one for installation. As I was about to put it in I glanced into the radio cavity and saw something lying on top of the key cylinder.
In a Grand Am, the key switch is on the dash, not the column; just to the left of the radio opening. It's also below and to the right of the instrument cluster. Some people like to prop pictures and things up on their instrument panel, and now and then one will slide back behind the dash and end up in the radio cavity. In this case, what I saw was a fairly large fold of cash, and the outside bill was a fifty. The whole thing was pretty dusty.
So I called over my co-worker, just because I kind of thought I wanted a witness to all this. His eyes popped out, probably looking much like mine a few seconds before. He even took a picture on his cell-phone camera, just because we knew no one was going to believe this.
The customer was waiting in our waiting area, right next to the bay. So I called him over and asked him casually if he's ever had the radio out of his car before. No, it's the same radio that was in when he bought it. How long has he had the car? Just a couple months.
Well, I said, we found this behind your radio. I held out the stack of cash. Cue the eye-popping again.
I was a bit taken aback by how fast he snatched it out of my hand.
I proceeded with the installation while my co-worker chatted with the customer, who was now in a very jolly mood. Turns out the total in the roll was $950.
Did I get a tip? No. Well, fine, it's not my money; he can do what he wants with it. Did I get a thank-you? No.
My reward was more work. Turns out the customer decided he could now afford a more expensive CD player. So I had to remove the one I'd just installed, let him take it up and exchange it, and put in the new one he picked out.
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