WARNING

Back in the days of Auburn, I had the privilege of working with a company by the name of HDK. It is an illegal (in my mind anyway) towing company that I dealt with on more occasions than I care to share. I honestly believe that they went around town looking for Isabella, my car. Besides causing me a huge inconvenience by stealing my car, they charged an unreal amount of money to release Isabella from being held hostage. I thought that I had escaped the torture of such scamming... until the other day.

George was out of town, so I took Clancy out for his evening walk a little early, before it got dark. Around 7:00 pm we returned to the apartment, but I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my keys! Oh no! I had never done this before and, as luck would have it, George was out of town. The only other person who had a key to our apartment was our dog walker, Elizabeth. After spending about 2 hours trying to get in touch with her, I finally gave in and called a locksmith who had left his card on the doorstep of our apartment building. When speaking to him on the phone, he told me it would be about $160 to "get me back in" to my apartment and an extra $40 something dollars for the emergency call. I told him I had never heard of a locksmith charging that much, but he assured me that this was the standard rate. After about 20 minutes the locksmith arrived, and I was in my apartment after 10 minutes of his labor. And now the climax of my story... He handed me the receipt. I was floored. After relaying to him my surprise and the price that had been discussed previously, he explained that I had to pay for the installed lock as well. Shock! I thought for a second, but what could I do? The work had already been done. Frustrated and overwhelmed are understatements.