Shooting Fish in a Barrel

We have two Wal-Marts in our little suburban town. At one of them, I can drive through there and out of ten times, I might find one car parked in the fire lane or one in a handicap space without a permit.

At the other one, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. When I pull in, there is always someone parked in the fire lane. With very few exceptions, they get a ticket. And I do this often. It is just the arrogance of these people. They think they should be the exception. And they have a variety of excuses. "I was just dropping off a prescription." "I was just returning a movie." "I was just parked here for a second." The list goes on.

I heard a new one today. It was a few minutes before midnight when I pulled in. There was one van parked in the fire lane, but it pulled away within seconds of my arrival. You can use the fire lane for immediate loading and unloading only. So I couldn't know how long they had been there.

Wal-Mart always has customers, and at that time of night, parking is not a problem. There were even front row spaces available.

By the time I came back around, there was a SUV parked in front of the doors, with it's flashers on, and the stereo BLARING. As soon as I pulled up, the back seat passenger turned the volume down. But that is one of my pet-peeves, so I decided I was gonna write two tickets. The second being a violation of the noise ordinance. The passenger said she was 13 years old, but looked considerably older. That's neither here nor there. The vehicle's driver had gone into the store, and as far as the girl knew, didn't have her cellphone with her. No problem, we'll wait.

So I waited. And I waited. And I waited some more. Normally, the driver returns to the vehicle within five minutes. This time, it took over twenty minutes for her to return. When she did, she had her other two passengers with her, both of whom were carrying shopping bags.

Her excuse? She had started her period, so she needed to run in and use the restroom.

Say what?

So I gave her her tickets, both of 'em. She wanted me to make it a warning. "Sorry ma'am. I write them for people who park there for a LOT less time, and you've just wasted nearly half an hour of mine."