How Low Can You Go? (My Garage Sale Nightmare)

It was a beautiful spring morning for a garage sale! The entire neighborhood was a buzz with activity bright and early that day. We were having the semi annual neighborhood sale; weeks of planning and coordinating efforts were finally going to pay off. And so it began.

This sale takes place in my sister's neighborhood twice a year. It attracts a lot of traffic due to the fact that folks can park and walk around the neighborhood to all the different sales without having to move their car again until they're done. We had about 6 folks bring things to sell at my sister's. We all marked our prices along with our initials so that we could display all of our things together without having to worry about what belonged to who and anyone could take money for items purchased. It made it easy to keep the monies separate.

The day was going well with lots of folks milling around our offerings. I spotted a little boy with a water gun going around the items spraying water on anything and everything he could reach! I stepped over to him and gently asked him to please stop spraying water on things as some of these things were not meant to get wet and he was ruining them! He just ignored me and continued on with his mission.

A few moments of frustration later, a woman comes up to me and hands me a small stack of clothing she wishes to pay for. I'm getting ready to add the items up and I realize that the price stickers on some of my items have someone else's initials on them. I also take notice that the stickers that are now on the items are for prices much lower than the items were originally marked. I say something to her only to discover that she doesn't speak English (or is pretending not to). She just keeps saying No! No! No! and proceeds to snatch the clothing from my hand and shove a few bills at me, she turns and grabs the little boy's arm (the one with the squirt gun) and abruptly makes her departure, leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging open and a shortage of funds in my hand! As they are leaving the driveway, I see the little boy pull a toy car that my nephew had for sale, out of his pocket!

I was flabbergasted! The woman had used the little boy as a distraction while she was busy switching price tags and then while I was distracted by her, the boy pockets his own booty! How low can you go to steal from a garage sale?

The day does not end there. I had a pair of very expensive boots for sale. These were boots that I wore a few times after skiing. They were knee high, covered with fur which made them look like two little blond "Cousin It's." A man and woman are milling around with their cute little lap dog on a leash when the dog decides to relieve himself on one of my furry little "Cousin It" look a likes!

It has been quite some time since I have participated in another garage sale. I think I prefer to be the buyer and not the seller from here on out.