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The parking garage that services my office is a public parking garage, for which I have a keycard, and for which regular customers simply take the ticket. It also closes at 11 PM. I get sprung from work every day at 2 AM. Some time ago, I witnessed the following:
Two college-age gentlemen, wearing the usual uniform of extraordinarily distressed baseball caps, T-shirts with something rude printed on them, cargo shorts, and Keds, are having a spirited discussion outside the garage. The safety gate is down, and so is the arm bar. In the brief time they're within earshot, I parse the following:
I figured they'd get it sorted eventually, so I used my keycard to let myself in via the pedestrian door, which is around the corner. I retrieved my car and drove to the front gate - the only one that takes my keycard - and let myself out. The heavy aluminum grate slowly cranked its way up.
At the sight of the gate going up, one of the two youths struck the other on the arm and they made a dash for the opening. They ducked under it as it was still going up. I proceeded out the door, still not thinking much about any of this. At the end of the right-of-way, I glanced in the rearview mirror to see the aluminum grate cranking its way back down. It slid home with the usual satisfying clank, and I proceeded on my way.
Much later, I realized something interesting: They were now locked in the parking garage. Until eight the next morning. There's no pay phone in there, no way to get their car past the grate, and the pedestrian door requires a keycard after hours - unless you want to give the big red emergency button a whack and set off the fire alarm. There was now a brick wall between them and any contact with the outside world, including the pay phone that might have summoned the Opener of Ways.
They had not measurably improved their situation. At least they would have something new to argue about.
Always wanted to follow up with security about it, but I kept forgetting about it until it didn't seem important anymore.
Two college-age gentlemen, wearing the usual uniform of extraordinarily distressed baseball caps, T-shirts with something rude printed on them, cargo shorts, and Keds, are having a spirited discussion outside the garage. The safety gate is down, and so is the arm bar. In the brief time they're within earshot, I parse the following:
- They lost track of time.
- The garage had closed with their car enshrined within.
- Though a number was on display, only one of the two had a cell phone, and it was dead.
- There was no way to recharge the cell phone.
- Neither one had seen the big shiny pay phone standing about 50 feet away on another building.
- The argument was about to enter its second hour and the current topic at hand was "whose fault is this."
I figured they'd get it sorted eventually, so I used my keycard to let myself in via the pedestrian door, which is around the corner. I retrieved my car and drove to the front gate - the only one that takes my keycard - and let myself out. The heavy aluminum grate slowly cranked its way up.
At the sight of the gate going up, one of the two youths struck the other on the arm and they made a dash for the opening. They ducked under it as it was still going up. I proceeded out the door, still not thinking much about any of this. At the end of the right-of-way, I glanced in the rearview mirror to see the aluminum grate cranking its way back down. It slid home with the usual satisfying clank, and I proceeded on my way.
Much later, I realized something interesting: They were now locked in the parking garage. Until eight the next morning. There's no pay phone in there, no way to get their car past the grate, and the pedestrian door requires a keycard after hours - unless you want to give the big red emergency button a whack and set off the fire alarm. There was now a brick wall between them and any contact with the outside world, including the pay phone that might have summoned the Opener of Ways.
They had not measurably improved their situation. At least they would have something new to argue about.
Always wanted to follow up with security about it, but I kept forgetting about it until it didn't seem important anymore.
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