This story has been circulating around for a while now, and I personally took a small look at the story a little while back and didn't pay much attention to it. So today I decided to look into the story a little deeper to find out what all the fuss was all about and form my own opinion on what happened.
If you haven't already heard about this story as of yet, it's basically all about a man from Adelaide who decided to pay his $60.00 parking fine in 5 cent coins. He went into a bank, asked for $60.00 worth of 5 cent coins. They provided him with this all in coins in small bags and he goes to a side counter and open them all up and put them into one big bag. He then proceeds to the RTA (I think), and tells the woman behind the counter that he wishes to pay his fine and dumps all the coins on the counter and pushes them all towards her desk. During the whole time he was filming this whole affair on what appears to be a hidden camera, and got the attention of ACA as well as Youtube which he posted up himself.
What has amazed me about the whole thing is mostly the comments which are following this whole video, and I'm honestly shocked that some of the Youtube comments seem to have much more maturity about the whole thing than the comments on ACA (which really shouldn't surprise me that much). Basically the shameful comments are praising this guy in his ways to 'stick it to the man.' How is paying a fine in coins actually doing this? All you are doing is causing yourself some trouble for going out of your way to the bank and line up in a queue to get the coins which they will have to count for you. Then going to the side counter to open up each of the bags and put them into the cloth bag which you will then have to carry with you. Also having the poor cashier girl (who before never had a beef with you until now), wanting to count all of this change. The cashier girl repeatedly tells the guy politely that she cannot accept payment in this form (as it is against Australian law to pay a fine with anything less than a 5 dollar note - which he really should have looked up beforehand).
Because of his constant arrogance at the woman behind the counter he then draws the attention of either the supervisor or security who checks what all the commotion is all about. The man refuses to give the guy the time of day, as he isn't the 'cashier' and proceeds to cause further trouble. He is then given two options, either collect the coins and change them for notes or walk out. He chooses the latter and starts saying "I've tried to make payment, he just told me to leave... I'm out." While continuing to shove the coins back at the girl who is being polite and piling them back up for him. I personally found it hilarious when he used the excuse "That's all I can afford to pay in those pieces." *Insert facepalm meme here* Great excuse there Sherlock!
He's excuse? They are "all part of a corporation" which he doesn't want to deal with. What corporation is that? The government? Well big whoop! You had a parking fine, you were in the wrong and you decide to not only take it on a woman who was just doing her job, but also another person who honestly probably wouldn't have noticed you. He then also demands to know their names, and when asked for his told them that they didn't need to know that kind of information. I may have a little respect for the guy if he actually told them, I'll wait here until you count them all. but instead he decides to take off.
Is this is what people have come down to? They do something wrong and decide to take it out on the wrong people? I mean if he wanted to dispute the parking fee he could have taken it to court, write a letter in protest or maybe even get a petition for people to sign. How about actually go up to ACA and tell his version of events. Nope. Apparently this kind of maturity wasn't common for this guy, he decided to show how a adult man can act like a 11 year old boy. Good going there bud.
Amazingly even though it is against the law to pay in such small change, they are offered to hold onto his coins in a safe until he can come back and claim them and continue to pay his fine in a proper way. So not only did he just make an idiot of himself on his own camera, but he'll have to come back to the same place with his tail between his legs to claim back the coins.
On a side note there should be another issue which needs to be brought to attention. This guy can get away with filming people and posting it within the media as it isn't against Australian law to take a photo of film someone without their permission. The only exception is employers filming employees, anything for commercial purposes, and lastly anything that is considered indecent or offensive. But I think that is another blog for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment