You Mean Its Not Real?! | vinividivici21's Blog

All right, I'm cold and have a headache/stomachache from eating nothing but Sour Patch Kids all day but I haaaaave to share this. :P (And, sorry in advance...I didn't realize the blog was this long!)

I was bored today and didn't feel like packing or cleaning anymore so I decided to catch a movie.

As I was on my way to the theater, I decided to stop at Target and get some candy and a drink. (I'll pay ten dollars for a ticket but that's it. Five dollars for a water is ridiculous.) Before getting the candy, I decided to browse the aisles...there was no real reason for it, I just felt like looking (Target does that to a person). Once I was finished, I headed over to the register, picked up two packs of Sour Patch Kids (.69 ea) , two Heath Bars (.69 ea) , and one Pepsi (1.99). The cashier gave me my total and, instead of rifling through my wallet for a five, I handed him a twenty. He was actually really nice and we chatted for a few seconds as he gave me my change and receipt.

As I put the change back in my wallet, I notice that the ten he'd given me was really beat up but I didn't say anything. (A beat up ten dollar bill isn't really an odd thing after all.)

So, I go to my movie ("Yes Man." Its not bad, the humor is a bit contrived and very typical of a Jim Carey flick, but it was alright), laugh a little and then head home. On my home, I realized there wasn't much to eat. Since Albertson's was on my way, I decided to stop there and grab a few things. Everything was fine until I went to the Self-Check Out Station and tried to use the ten dollar bill I'd gotten from Target earlier. It wouldn't run through. I thought it was just because the bill was so old, so I stood there for a few minutes inserting and re-inserting the bill.

(At this point, most people would've just given up and used a different bill, but by then I was getting frustrated and stubborn.)

A salesclerk saw me struggling and very politely asked if I needed help. I told him that the bill acceptor wasn't accepting my money and he came over to help. He offered to take the bill and switch it out for a newer one so I handed the ten to him. He walked over to the cash register, and just as he was about to switch out the bills, he held it up and left towards the manager's desk. Shit. 

He came back, five or six minutes later, told me that the bill was counterfit, and handed the ten back to me. My response was "You mean its not real?!" as I obviously wasn't expecting that and I think my dismay showed too much because he started to console me which, now that I think about, is kind of amusing. He told that it happens a lot and that I could go back to Target and that they'd exchange the fake money for real money. And, after I paid for my groceries with 1 dollar bills, that's exactly what I did.

At Target, I went to the Customer Service desk and told the girl at the counter what happened. This initiated a series of four walkie-talkie pages and soon I was surrounded by five different Target personnel. They ended up giving me the ten dollars, but, oddly enough, I felt like I needed to apologize for causing some much trouble. And, then, as I was walking away with my new, crisp (and totally legit) ten dollar bill, I heard the manager say "Its all right, we'll just drop it with the rest." Meaning that they were going to deposit the fake money as if it were real...I didn't feel so bad after that. :P