Taking the Chance Card...

We had a "fun day" at work a few weeks ago - that's right, a designated day that we were required to have fun. To achieve this fun day we went uptown (what Charlotte calls downtown) to a nice restaurant for lunch and then went bowling. As I'm sure you know times are still tough in the economy, so to save money on the fun we were encouraged to take the "new" light rail uptown. Prior to this fun day I already had some personal issues with the light rail: A) It only spans 10 miles. I understand expansion takes time but seriously, is taking a train 10 miles that much faster than driving 10 miles? B) It's on the other side of town from me so it's not really convenient.

I decided to drive closer to uptown to park before getting on the light rail because I had a haircut appointment right after work. So my plan was to get on the same train that my coworkers were on but at a later stop. I timed everything perfectly, pulled into the parking lot at the stop that I was getting on with about 10 minutes to spare before the train would arrive. I walked up to the ticket machine and the screen read "Insert Credit Card". I didn't think anything about this, I assumed I would get to pick which type of ticket I wanted to buy after my credit card was entered. However, after I swiped my card the screen then read, "Ticket Printing." Hmmm...that's odd, I didn't get to pick round trip or one-way. I pick up the ticket and turn it over to see it is a Youth One-Way ticket and it cost me $0.75. I wanted an Adult Round-Trip ticket which would have cost me $3.00. Great.

I then realized someone must have picked youth one-way on the machine and then walked away leaving the insert credit card screen up for the next innocent person to inadvertently purchase a youth one-way ticket. So I had a choice: just take this ticket that I've already paid $0.75 for and risk making it uptown on a youth-ticket or spend another $3.00 for a round trip adult ticket.

As I've said, times are tough and spending another $3.00 was not something I really wanted to do. So I took the chance and decided I would buy an adult one-way ticket once I made it uptown to get back. The train with my co-workers arrived and I got on as planned. I honestly didn't think much about getting caught because I just didn't think that a police officer would be checking tickets on this 10 mile stretch of a light rail. My hunch was right and I made it uptown on the $0.75 ticket.

We had the "fun" uptown and then I walked back to the uptown train station with my co-workers only to find that there was no ticket machine. At least, I didn't see any ticket machines at this particular stop. I looked around on both sides of the track for a good 5 minutes but then once the train arrived I just figured I would chance it again and hopped on the train ticketless.

I took a seat at the front of the train with some co-workers and began discussing options for how to get my haircut. Then all of the sudden I heard a co-worker yell out my name from the middle of the train. I turned around and that's when I saw him. A police officer making his way up the train checking people's tickets. Thanks to the non-discreet yelling of my name the officer and I made eye-contact when I turned around and I knew he knew I was a suspect. I calmly pulled out the one-way youth ticket that I used to get uptown and turned it over to the side that doesn't show what type of ticket it is. When the officer came up to the front row asking for tickets I showed him the side with the picture. He didn't buy it. Our exchange went like this:

Officer: "Other side ma'am."
Me: I say nothing and turn the ticket over and smile the most innocent smile I can.
Officer: "That ticket is expired ma'am."
Me: "Oh well yes I actually know that but you see at the 3rd street station uptown there was no machine to buy a ticket from and--"
Officer: "Ma'am there are ample ticket machines at every stop."
Me: "Huh, really? Because I looked around for a while and just didn't see one - and you looked too, right Lisa" (I then looked at my co-worker sitting next to me who nodded vigorously)
Officer: "Ma'am you're going to have to get off at the next stop."
Me: "What!?! Are you serious??" (half laughing, he's not going to really make me get off the train over a $3 ticket!)
Officer: "Yes ma'am it's either that or I can give you a $50 ticket." (not laughing)
Me: "Okay, okay...I'll leave." (not laughing anymore either)

I then got up and made the walk of shame down the train with co-workers laughing and cackling on either side of me. The train stopped and I exited. A nice manager got off the train with me so that I didn't have to stand there by myself. Then the nice manager took out his blackberry and emailed everyone who wasn't on our train to tell them how I broke the law.

The next day at work I was greeted with the following envelope filled with coins on my desk:

I also got this:

Instructions on how to purchase tickets for the light rail.

And several people stopped by my desk to offer me $3 throughout the day saying , "Wow, we didn't realize times were so tough."

...Yes, it was a "fun" day indeed.