The Ice Man Cometh

So, I'm sitting out in front of the Costco in Altamonte Springs this past Monday, Jan. 15, waiting for my daughter-in-law and my 2 granddaughters to meet me for some pizza.  (I love their pizza!)  As I'm waiting, I watch as a car drives up and parks right in front of the concession stand....it's a dark blue Mercedes S500.  A man gets out of the car....fairly tall, a little overweight, beard, glasses (I think), and he's dressed in a nice shirt & slacks, appearing to be successful.  As he emerges from the car, I notice he has an empty plastic bag in his hand.  Now I'm curious.  So I watch as he takes the plastic bag, goes up to where the soda machines are, and proceeds to fill the bag with ice.  He closes the top of the bag, opens the back door of the car and puts the bag of ice (I'm guessing here) into a cooler.  He then gets behind the wheel of his Mercedes S500 and takes off!  

I sat there stunned.  I couldn't believe what I just saw with my own eyes.  This man is driving a VERY expensive car, and pilfers a bag of ice?  I mean, are his car payments so high that he can't afford the buck and a half or two bucks to buy some ice?!  Granted, you can't really calculate what the cost of producing that amount of ice would be, but if a hundred people did that over the course of each week, it starts adding up, because water isn't free. 

Of course, my first thought....and the same thought of many others I related the story to was: maybe that's why he can afford a Mercedes S500!  And I can't help but wonder how many other things he just takes because they're there. 

At the end of the day, that bag of ice isn't worth very much, but what price can you put on pride?  I'm just saying.