I was working in Illinois in 1979 at a Lincoln Mercury dealership. The store was on the corner of a main intersection, fifteen minutes from downtown Chicago. There were bus stops on each corner with benches for the commuters to wait for their buses. Those commuters were called bus ups. With time to kill, they would wonder in to kick the tires and talk to the first sales person they could find. Needless to say the sales staff would run and find a way to avoid the bus ups who outnumbered the real buyers. The sales persons would grab a lot person and have him show any car to the bus ups. This would usually happen when management was not around or tied up with you know, whatever management does.
One day a sales person instructed a lot boy to take a bus up for a demo ride. It was an hour before anyone noticed that the car and the lot person had not returned. I received a call that we have a problem, missing car and an employee. It took me an hour to get to the dealership and in that time the police had been notified that we have a missing car and that a employee might be kidnapped. If you think anyone owned up to how the lot person got in this predicament, think again. The hours flew by as we went about the day waiting to hear good news.
Finally late that night the police recovered the car and the employee. The employee related what happened, it started out as demo ride as described; first stop was the home of the bus up, to pick up his girl friend. Since the lot person was getting paid by the hour he just went along for the ride thinking that it was good business to keep the up happy. From one bar to the next they drove, drank, enjoyed the day and then crashed the car. It was at the accident scene that the police made the arrest. You can’t make this up. I wish I could say the bus up bought a car, he did not or make restitution for the repairs.
If there is a message, sales persons should take all ups for demo rides and get the ups license before they leave the dealership. This story can make you laugh but there are stories that end in tragedy. Make a copy of the ups drivers license, leave it with the manager and use the same demo route all the time.
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