Who knew buying balloons for a coworker’s birthday could be so stressful?

Well, despite all the hurdles, this man decided to make the most out of an annoying situation and got his coworker a balloon he will never forget.

Let’s read the story.

One balloon per person you say? Alrighty then… I choose this one!

This happened a couple of years back, on my coworker’s birthday.

I ran out that morning to the party store to grab a small balloon bouquet.

I wasn’t going for anything fancy, just one Mylar birthday balloon with two or three solid-colored latex balloons to match, a fairly standard arrangement.

It was a little after 10 am, the store had just opened, and I was the only customer in there.

Uh-oh.

I walked up to the counter to order my balloons, and the woman working there asked me if I had preordered.

I told her I hadn’t, and she informed me that she couldn’t do it for me.

Apparently, if I didn’t preorder, it was their store policy that they could only do one balloon per person, per visit.

I looked around and I am STILL the only customer in the store.

Is there a balloon shortage, ma’am?

Now, I would totally get why this would be something the store would have to enforce if there were other people waiting, but again, there was nobody else there, and filling up 3-4 regular balloons would maybe take about 2 minutes tops.

It was pretty obvious at this point that this lady was really just being lazy.

I apologized and explained that I wasn’t aware of their policy, and would remember to call ahead in the future, but asked if she could help me out, because I was trying to get them for my coworker whose birthday was that day.

She answered me abruptly with a “Sorry, store policy!”

But he was not going to leave that store without something properly festive.

I think about it for a second and tell her to hold on for a minute. If I can only get one balloon, I would like to pick a different one.

I went back to one of the birthday party aisles and found a package for a full-bodied, Mickey Mouse balloon.

Now, if you’ve ever seen one of these full-bodied character balloons, you’ll know that it’s made up of multiple parts (head, arms, body, legs, feet, etc), that need to be individually blown up and then assembled to create the character.

This is then completed by putting weights and rollers on the feet so your balloon can “walk.”

It IS technically one balloon though.

She couldn’t argue with that.

I went back and handed the package to the lady at the front counter, shrugged and said: “If I only get one balloon, it might as well be a good one!”

I then proceeded to watch her struggle to figure out how to assemble it for the next 15-20 minutes.

I can’t say I’ve ever spent $20 on a single balloon before, but it was totally worth it to watch this woman angrily assemble my “single” balloon, when if she’d just done what I had originally asked for, I probably would’ve already been back at my office.

I only wish I could’ve watched her watch me as I left, walking hand in hand out of that door with my freshly created Mickey Mouse balloon.

I’m sure his coworker never forgot this gesture.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this.

A reader shares their thoughts.

Many ways to deal with this situation, I see.

Another reader chimes in.

This would’ve been another option.

I wouldn’t say no to one, either.

Another good idea.

Well, that backfired.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.