June 12, 2008 – Our Mechanic Stanley

Before me with a not so bright look on his face stands our mechanic Stanley cackling away.  I can’t help but stare at the three metal screws sticking out of his upper jaw.  There are no teeth, just the three metal spikes that likely held them at some point.  Man, meth must be a hell of a drug…  He thinks that the company is a big pile of crap as well so we have something in common.

I don't have a picture of "Stanley", but this is what he'd look like with a beard...

Nice guy when he isn’t stealing our gas and causing us to lose time at work from the new parts that Catherine buys, when she actually decides to buy new parts, and replacing them with old.   Sometimes the parts he puts in are broken to begin with. 

One of our drivers, Jefferson, was having issues with the battery in his taxi.  Jefferson came to the determination that it needed a new battery.  He took the time to bring his taxi to the shop and that did whatever it is that they do there and replaced the battery, or so he was led to believe…  The problem kept occurring and Jefferson kept bringing the taxi to the shop for battery related problems.  On the fourth trip Jefferson was pretty irritated and asked Stanley personally about the problem.  It was at this juncture that Stanley simply giggled and nonchalantly admitted that he had never changed the battery.

What Stanley had been doing was merely washing the battery to make it appear to new, while doing who knows what with the new batteries, and telling Catherine that the car had been fixed.  I’m willing to bet that he was selling them and keeping the money, while Jefferson was getting screwed out of time at work that he could have been making money, not to mention the frustration of dealing with the office.

Then there’s the side business of stealing gas.  It’s fairly obvious, one of the other mechanics even volunteered that he saw Stanley doing this first hand.  Not too long ago I brought my taxi into the shop for a repair.  I brought it in with a full tank of gas.  When I got my cab back there was only  two thirds of a tank left.  So I called the office.

Me: Hi Catherine, I picked up my car from the shop yesterday and it was short of gas.  I’ll go ahead and submit a receipt for the shortage when I pay my lease.

Catherine: *****, when we fix something on a car we take it for a test drive to make sure it has been fixed.

Me: $27 worth?  Where did he test drive it to?

Catherine: Ok *****, I’ll credit you this time.

What a sweetheart.  I guess it would be too much to admit that her mechanic is stealing our gas by siphoning it out of our cars.  I’m not the only driver who has complained about this by the way.   Surely if I made a direct accusation Catherine would want some concrete proof like video evidence or something.  I mean why fix problems when you can just deny them right?  That seems to be the trend.

In addition to selling parts and stealing gas. Stanley makes his money selling  shitty weed, he has a big jar that he keeps it in over at the shop.  I’d never buy weed from Stanley, actually I’d be reluctant to buy anything that he has had his grubby hands on.  Apparently this isn’t enough to pay his debtors though.

A few days ago a few large men came to the office and had a word with Stanley off in the distance.  I wasn’t there that day but Jefferson saw the whole thing.  Stanley was just getting SCREAMED AT!

Jefferson: What was that about?

Stanley: I owe those guys some money.  It’s been a bit and they’re not happy.

Jefferson: How much do you owe them?

Stanley: $200

Jefferson: That sounds bad.  Here’s $200.  You can pay me back next week.

Stanley: Thanks so much Jefferson.

Jefferson’s a stand up guy.  It pains me to see people like Jefferson working here.  Someone with so much potential.  Why am I still here anyways?  I can’t stand these clowns.  I actually got offered a job with the government a while back, but the pay was shit.  Here I stand, the master of reflection.  So many questions…

Who knows what would have happened to Stanley if he didn’t pay those men.  Although, if he isn’t able to pay two large angry men, I don’t know what the chances of him paying Jefferson back are…