TRAVEL

How My Girlfriend Saved Me From A Mob Hit

Yet Another Good Reason To Marry That Girl

Very Suspicious Behavior

In the Customs Hall, just arrived in from Mexico, there was a sickly looking 22 year old girl sitting in a wheelchair, surrounded by airport medical staff. Her dad stood nearby, loudly protesting.

“It’s indigestion!”

The girl didn’t appear well at all. Flushed and sweaty, she was leaning forward onto her knees, making moaning sounds, with her face in her hands.

“We have to get to our next flight! This is ridiculous!”

The father was not co-operating at all.

The medical staff had been summoned by the Customs officers, but the girl and the father were refusing their help.

Nobody could get near her.

“We can’t force them to accept help”, said one of the emergency personnel.

The father angrily wheeled the girl into the baggage area, and when the Customs officers met them at the exit doors, the couple was redirected into secondary screening for further investigation.

The whole thing was very suspicious.

‘Well Connected’, But Gonna Miss Their Connection

It turns out, they were mobsters.

But Karen and I didn’t know that at the time.

Customs thought the sick girl had been smuggling cocaine. They thought she ingested it in small bags.

But we didn’t know that at the time either.

Karen was sent to deal with these customers, on behalf of the airline. It was literally her first day as an acting manager.

And here, at that moment, was literally her first assignment:

She had to go to the baggage hall and break the news to this difficult couple that they weren’t allowed to get on their next flight to Ottawa because they were a medical risk.

It was a company policy: When emergency staff is called to the scene, the customer has to then get clearance from a doctor in order to travel.

I’d Rate Him As Irate

Airport employees often refer to an upset customer as ‘irate’.

In my mind, that word can be misleading, and can conjure up visions of an out of control maniac. In most cases, irate customers are not irate at all. They’re just a little ‘pissed off’.

But in some cases, irate customers are out of control maniacs.

And Karen didn’t know which one this guy was.

Here I Come To Save The Day!

So when I heard that she was going downstairs to deal with this man, I immediately swooped in to help my girlfriend.

I flew, like Superman, down into the baggage hall, to fix everything with my outstanding customer service superpowers.

I would speak to the customer, calm him down, offer him a hotel for the night, and instruct him on the best way to safely get to his destination the next day.

Only that didn’t happen.

Karen was already talking to him when I arrived. He was loud. He was boisterous. But she was doing a good job. Until I stepped in.

Hate At First Sight

He hated me right away, as soon as he saw me.

I tried to call on my years of management experience to explain to him the ‘facts of the matter’, while appearing sympathetic to his situation.

It didn’t work. He hated me even more.

The Customs people were searching through their bags but weren’t coming up with anything. There was no reason to detain them further.

He started getting more animated, as I spoke to him about how his daughter had to seek medical attention before we would allow them to travel. At one point, his nose was a fraction of a millimeter away from giving my nose an ‘Eskimo Kiss’, while he shouted obscenities at me.

But he got my point — I was NOT going to allow him to get on that flight.

Preparing To Call In A ‘Hit’

“I WANT YOUR NAME!”

No problem. He wanted my name. I’d give him my name. I calmly pulled out a business card, handed it to him, and pointed out my name and contact information.

And then I looked over to Karen, feeling a bit proud. We could leave the area, safely, as a result of my work, I thought. I had taken some abuse, yes, but she could move onto her next task, having seen how a professional like me handles a tough situation like that.

Another Good Reason To Marry That Girl

Karen was standing off to the side. She had just been approached by a burly Customs Officer. He whispered something to her, and then she immediately walked over to the father.

“Sir, can I have that business card back? He gave you an old one by accident”

He handed the card back, and Karen grabbed me by the elbow and we made a beeline out from the baggage hall. While we were walking, she ripped up the card into 20 pieces.

“What happened?”, I asked sheepishly.

“The Customs officer told me that the guy is a bloody mobster! He said tell your boyfriend to get his bloody business card back!”

Yup, Karen saved me from a mob hit.

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