It is an unfortunate reality in this world that many people will try to scam you out of money if they think they can get away with it.

What would you do if one of your employees almost hit a neighbor’s fence, but then the neighbor claimed that they hit it and started demanding compensation?

That is what happened to the store manager in this story, but he stood his ground and refused to give them a dime.

Fix my fence – or part two of Crazy Neighbor Lady

I had a very pregnant worker who also happens to be engaged to my assistant manager.

Is backing out really that hard?

One night she calls me crying because apparently after she had clocked out she went out to her car which she had parked next to the drive thru and was forced to back out because there was a customer in the drive thru. (personally I don’t understand why she thought backing up in the drive thru was a good idea but I digress)

Anyways, because of the large protuberance of her belly she was unable to turn to see behind her and she thought she might have ‘bumped’ the neighbor’s fence. Now one of my staff members had seen the whole episode and said she stopped short but that doesn’t really matter as far as this story is concerned. What is important is what happened next.

They have a right to be upset if they thought their fence got hit.

Crazy Neighbor Lady (CNL for short) and her son (CNLs) happen to be outside and see the whole debacle and run over.

They look at the fence and start screaming at my employee who apologizes and tries to talk to them (first mistake). First they say she knocked down the fence (which is still standing).

They just want a new fence.

When she points this out they scream that it won’t be standing much longer and she will have to pay for it to get fixed.

Now just to explain this fence it is probably about 50 years old if it is a day. The wood is almost completely rotted out and the only thing holding it up are rusted metal rods that are twisted to the boards.

What’s the point of this fence?

It is also only about two and a half feet high and maybe 15 feet long. CNL and CNLs are screaming that she needs to pay for the damage which they figure is going to be around 500 dollars.

This is when I come into the story. My employee calls me (because I apparently am the smartest adult she knows) and I can hear CNL and CNLs in the background screaming.

Nothing needs to be done, just leave.

My employee is crying and asking me what to do. First I ask if she was on the clock (she wasn’t) and then I asked if there was any damage. (not to her car and not that she could see on the fence) I asked if she had called the police. (Nope.)

At this point I hear the CNL start speaking in Spanish (both my employee and I speak Spanish) and this is what I hear:

They are just scamming at this point.

CNL to CNLs: “Tell that gringa that she made all this damage to the fence so she will pay for it”

CNLs to CNL: “But mama there is red paint from when that car hit it like five years ago! This lady’s car is gray!”

And now there is proof that it is a scam.

CNL to CNLs: “Well it’s not like she knows the other car hit it!”

At this point the CNLs tells my employee she made the damage to the fence and my employee rips him a new one saying that she heard them talking and that she is not paying for their fence.

That’s an empty threat.

I am still in awe of this when CNL then replies “Well if you don’t pay for it I am going to sue your company and tell your boss that you did it and get you fired!”

My employee is crying and I tell her to either call the police or leave at this point. So she leaves.

He knew this was coming.

Fast forward to the next day when I come into work. I am working on my open when the phone rings and it is CNLs.

I had looked at the fence before coming in so I knew that there had been no damage because it looked exactly the same as always.

They have no shame.

CNLs calls and he starts in telling me this trumped up story about how one of my workers ran into his fence and busted it all up and now he feels that my store should pay for the replacement of the fence because it was one of my workers.

I explain to him that I know all about the situation and that because the worker was not on the clock we are not responsible for the damage. (we even have a waiver that says we are not responsible even if they are on the clock).

Oh come on, this is just pathetic.

He says that “Well she was wearing her uniform so that means she was working”

REALLY? so we must change immediately out of our uniform or we are working? I explained to him that even if she was working (which she was not) we are not responsible.

That is more than the whole fence cost.

To which he decided to say “Well we can resolve this whole thing for about 800 dollars”

What?! Seriously!

They aren’t getting a dime.

I replied that NO we would not be giving him any money for his fence because we were not responsible and I then told him that I had been on the phone when he and his mother tried to extort my employee for the damage she could not have caused.

He then responded by telling me, “well it was one of your customers that did that damage and you should be responsible!”

Hopefully he is giving up.

I told him there is no way I am responsible for damage a potential customer may have caused. At this point he finally began to see he wasn’t getting anywhere with me and ended the conversation.

Next day he came into the store and wanted to speak to the manager.

They are grasping at straws now.

My employees pointed me out and he said “Oh no! I want to talk to someone else!” and so my district manager talked to him for a couple of minutes and then went into the back and brought out some papers and showed them to him and the guy huffed and puffed and then left.

I walked up and asked what happened and my dm said “That guy thought for some reason we would pay him 1000 dollars to fix his fence. He said that Employee hit it while on delivery and we should pay for it. I showed him the responsibility waiver and told him we aren’t responsible. Can you believe that?”

Not surprising at all.

Yes. Yes I can.

You really have to stand firm against people who are trying to scam you because otherwise they will never give up.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

LOL, exactly.

I love this commenter’s suggestion.

Now that is a good idea.

Stand strong against scammers.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.