TIFU by using Zipcar

This happened today.

My girlfriend and I live in separate apartments in Brooklyn, but we share a storage unit near her place. I'd gotten a Zipcar subscription for a trip last month, which left me with a monthly fee that I was looking to justify. So I reserved a car for an hour and half to go pick up some of my crap. That's a half hour to get there, a half hour to pack, and a half hour to lug the stuff up to my place. This will become important later.

I apparently took longer than anticipated packing things up, and, as I'm pulling up to my place, I realize that the "meter" on my reservation is nearly up. Don't really love that you have to anticipate your trip down to the minute, but figure they'll just charge me for an extra hour and it'll cost me an another $15. Boy was I wrong.

Parking is scarce, so I double park, throw on the hazards, exit the car, shut the driver-side door, and go to start unloading my stuff. Hmm this is odd... I didn't lock the car, and yet the door doesn't open. I know, I'll use my phone to unlock it (you use the Zipcar app to unlock their rentals). Hmm, that's strange, the doors remain locked. This is when I start to realize that when the reservation for your Zipcar runs out, they don't just hit you with a fee -- they unceremoniously lock you out of the car completely.

So here's this car, double parked on a busy road, blocking some other poor guy's car in, with all my stuff locked inside. And the best part -- my cat's in there.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I'd spent the night at my girlfriend's, and brought my cat to stay with us. After shoving all my crap into the car, I'd loaded Kinko in for the trip back to my place. So now she's traped inside the car, locked in her carrier, on the first official day of Summer. WTF.

I call Zipcar. I grit my teeth and calmy explain the situation to an insufferably chipper customer service representative for a company that I'm beginning suspect doesn't have my best interests at heart.

I tell her that her company has locked my things inside of their car.

I tell her that her company has locked my cat inside of their car.

I tell her that it is hot out.

She asks for my ID number.

I tell her that her company has locked my ID inside of their car.

She asks for the last four digits of my credit card.

I tell her that her company has locked my credit card inside of their car.

She says something along the lines of, "well that's a pickle."

It's around this time that I'm approached by an elderly man who announces himself as the owner and operator of the car, which is now obstructed by this imobile rental car/take-all-my-shit device. He asks if I could kindly move the vehicle, because he's experiencing a medical episode and is about to drive himself to the emergency room. WTF.

I explain to the customer service rep that there's now a very real chance that a curteous, elderly bystander may die, because her company has decided to suddenly and without warning transform the car I had rented into a large, immovable hunk of crap. I tell her that this is unacceptable, that if it were her, she would not want to die because an uncaring service representative of an uncaring car rental company chose to value their rental policy over a human life.

She thinks this over. She asks if I can hold. A minute goes by, then two... five... ten. A man is dying. I am freaking out. Something must be done.

The garage where I was supposed to drop off the car is actually very close to my apartment. I run to it. I find an attendant there, and I told him the story -- albeit, with less color -- that you read now.

I ask him to unlock the car.

He tells me he might get fired if he does.

I tell him that their are lives on the line. That the fate of an elderly man and a very good cat rest in his hands.

He stares off into space, and a for a moment I can almost see the conflict inside of him, as the pragmatism of his intellect wrestles with the better angels of his heart. He looks back at me.

He asks where the car is. Soon, my cat is free and an elderly man tragically drives himself to the emergency room.

Oh, and the late fee I expected? It was easily more expensive than the entire trip. Fuck you Zipcar.

TL;DR: I rented a zipcar, but underestimated how long I would need it, so Zipcar locked me out with my cat inside, and blocking an old man from driving himself to the hospital.