Oh, the security of it!

[It shouldn't]

This one was a bit strange:

SC=older lady
Me= locksmith shop slave

SC: <walks in and starts rummaging through suitcase size purse>
Me: Can I help you?
SC:<pulls out a wadded up shopping bag, which contains 2 one gal. size ziplock bags, pulls one out, which contains a few quart size zoplock bags, which each contain a few of those amber pill bottles and hands me a pill bottle>
Me: ,<rattle pill bottle and see outlines of two keys in there and start to open>
SC: NNNOOOOO!!!! Don't compromise the security!!!
Me: ??????........
Sc: ...................
Me: How can I help you?
SC: I need copies!
Me: Of the keys in the bottle?
SC: YES!!!! (said in a 'well duh" kinda tone)
Me: <starts to open bottle again>
SC: NNNOOOO! YOU CAN'T OPEN THIS!!
Me: I have to take them out, in order to put them in the machine to make copies.
SC: ...............................
ME: I have to take them out to make copies.
SC: Can't you just look at them and make them. I don't want them to be ruined.
ME: No, I have to take them out.

< cue me explaining for 15 min that I have to clamp the keys in the machine to make copies and no, it won't ruin her original. She finally "allows" to remove the 'treasured' keys from their 'protective coverings'. I walk over to the keymachine, make the keys and give her back the originals and the copies and ring it in the register.

Me: $ 3.19, please
SC: OH my, I want my keys back.
Me: <points to counter> they're right there.
SC: Those are not my keys!
Me: Yes, they are. These are the originals and these are the copies I've made
SC: No, I want the keys I gave you back!!!
Me: <holds up the 2 originals on a ring> These are the 2 keys that you gave me, which were in the pill bottle!
SC: I don't think they are. I think you have them mixed up.
Me: No, I know these are the keys you gave me.
SC: OH my, <mumbles> now what do I do, I don't even know what these go to. <mumble, grumble, unintelligible mumble>

She grabs her originals, leaves my copies laying on the counter and starts packing them back in the pil bottle/baggies/suitcase. All there while keeps mumbeling about how she doesn't know what they go to and now since I mixed them up, she has to go home and try them in every lock and I didn't give her keys back. And turns around and shuffles on out, still grumbeling.

She never paid and now I'm stuck with 2 keys that are cut.

[DarkProwler]

Wow, sounds like she needs to put her meds back in that bottle.

[StarSong]

Poor lady. I know her behavior was incredibly annoying, but I can't help feeling sorry for her.

[BaristaTrav]

Poor lady. I know her behavior was incredibly annoying, but I can't help feeling sorry for her.

Yea.. she probably has Alzheimer's or something. But that of course pisses me off, because who is responsible for this lady and letting her walk the streets unsupervised? Oh I forgot.. probably one of the 47 million under the current health care system (Your'e f-cked).

[StarSong]

Yea.. she probably has Alzheimer's or something. But that of course pisses me off, because who is responsible for this lady and letting her walk the streets unsupervised?

Lack of/poor caregiving pisses me off too. When I was a kid our next door neighbor was an older man with Alzheimer's whose son didn't give a rat's ass. One day the old man found his way out of the house and wandered about five miles away from home before the police picked him up. I still have no idea how they managed to get him home again since I highly doubt he had any ID on him. I think the son ended up going to jail later on. Thanks, karma.

Sorry for the off-topicness.

[It shouldn't]

The hammer was, she wandered on out, got in a brand new car right outside the door and drove off.

[Shimatta]

Can you ask for payment in advance if you see someone a little off like that?

[otakuneko]

My paternal grandfather used to cut keys. He had a little measuring tool he could use to work out a key's code visually.

...course, to use even that, he had to have the key in hand.

[mattm04]

were they the same keys in the pill bottle?

[cinema guy]

At least she's got here keys. My grandma had a mild stroke and had problems with her memory. She kept losing the back door key and it would turn up in strange places like inside a saucepan in a cupboard. It was both funny and heartbreaking.

[workerbee222]

People who can't/don't take care of themselves aren't necessarily required to go into supervised situations. Some continue to walk (or drive) about until something disastrous happens.

And it isn't always that no one cares. Some do a pretty good job of outliving most of their relatives, and being estranged from the remaining.

That old lady with the keys? that's me in 30 years, but I'll be covered in cat hair.

[Argabarga]

There's also the possibility that the family has been trying to get her to move in with someone or into a supervised facility, but she'll have none of it because she's adamant nothing is wrong with her, and until she does something that proves she's a genuine risk to herself or others, there's not much that can be done. My Great Grandmother was like that, but we weren't able to get her "off the streets" so to speak until she wrecked her car and couldn't go anywhere anymore.

I mean, if all it took to get someone off the streets was occasional wierd behavior, there'd be nobody left.

[Sparky]

What I want to know was what the label on the pill bottle said.

I mean, she had to be on some interesting meds, poor thing. Could be Altzheimer's, could be schitzophrenia.

[atomicthumbs]

The key is sacred. THE KEY MUST NOT BE OXIDIZED

[fireheart]

I had a similar customer, except that I don't work as a locksmith. He was EXTREEEMLY paranoid. He wouldn't let me scan his shopping items (one box of panadol), had his money inside a PENCIL CASE inside a SUITCASE and then when his wife came around, I asked to check her bags and he FLIPPED on me.
Needless to say, he lodged a complaint, but I didn't get written up because I was just doing my job.