Today The Scruff brings you a funny and true story that fits right in the category of “you can’t make this stuff up.” The best part, the person who went through the ordeal–Tallal Shakarchi, Vice President of Development–was able to laugh about it afterwards.
A couple of months ago, Tallal had a meeting with Highland Residential Services, an LHP client located in Cookeville, TN. He flew to Nashville and went to pick up a rental car. To his surprise and delight, he was given keys to a Tesla and told it was a complimentary “upgrade.” The rest of the story is best told in Tallal’s words:
“So I’m all excited and I get in this Tesla and drive off,” Tallal says. “But 15 minutes into the drive, the dashboard starts flashing red and saying “very low battery… charge now.” The nearest charging station is 20+ miles away and the car was telling me I had 13 miles of battery left. I never make it to the charging station and the car breaks down on the highway. The car rental agency is telling me that I have to sit by the car for a tow truck to come and that it will be another three hours. I said that won’t work because I have to make my meeting, so I left the car on the highway. They warned me that I would be charged the full amount of the Tesla if it gets stolen and I laughed because my LHP P-card does NOT have that high a limit. I just put the key under the driver’s seat and told them good luck.”
Tallal says he then called Uber only to learn that the service cannot pick you up on the side of the highway.
“So I had to drop a pin in a neighborhood that was a mile away,” Tallal says. “I take my suitcase and trudge through the forest When I finally get through the trees to this neighborhood where the Uber was, I see a never-ending barbed wire fence. I’m laughing at my own misery at this point and just toss my suitcase (and myself) over this fence. I cut my thumb on one of the barbs and finally make it into the Uber.”
Tallal made it just in time for the board meeting, walking in with leaves in his hair and a mangled thumb.
“They were like, “What happened to you?” Needless to say, the story was a hit with the board members. So I guess the life lesson here is to make sure you check that your electric rental car is actually charged before you drive off the lot!”
