Cashier Laughed At Old Woman Counting Pennies So I Did Something That Got Me Arrested

Cashier laughed at old woman counting pennies for bread and I lost my mind right there in line. Something snapped inside me. Forty-three years of riding, sixty-seven years of living, and I’d never felt rage like that moment.

She was maybe eighty years old. Tiny. Hunched over. Her hands were shaking as she counted out coins one by one on the counter. Pennies mostly. A few nickels. Her fingers were twisted with arthritis and she kept losing count.

“Ma’am, you’re twenty-three cents short.” The cashier was maybe nineteen. Rolling her eyes. Sighing loudly. “There’s a line.”

“I’m sorry,” the old woman whispered. “I thought I had enough. Let me count again.”

Someone behind me groaned. “Come on, lady. Some of us have places to be.”

The old woman’s shoulders started shaking. She was crying. Crying over a $2.49 loaf of bread she couldn’t afford. Crying while a store full of people watched and nobody helped.

That’s when the cashier laughed. Actually laughed. “Maybe try the food bank next time, hon.”

I stepped forward. Slammed a twenty on the counter. “Her groceries are on me. And you’re going to apologize to her right now.”

The cashier’s smile disappeared. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Apologize.”

“Sir, I don’t have to—”

“You just humiliated an eighty-year-old woman over twenty-three cents. In front of everyone. You laughed at her.”