“There. That should solve things.” I’m pretty sure those were the first words to form in the mind of 62-year old John Parsley immediately after he rammed his 2006 GMC Sierra into the lobby of a Comfort Inn in Alva, Oklahoma. No one was injured, and I’m sure this thoughtful act of problem-solving took care of everything.
The guy even had a dealer-installed lobby-ramming bar on the front of his truck! You have to admire a person using the right tool for the job.
Parsley, of Gonzales, Texas, took issue with two charges on his bill that were declined on his credit card, prompting Parsley to pay in cash. The charges seemed to have shown up on Parsley’s card, for which he demanded a refund. The hotel manager suggested that Parsley would need to contact his credit card company about the conflicting charges.
But why call when you can ram?
The hotel manager stated that Parsley mentioned he had had trouble with Indian hotel managers in the past, and then announced he would:
“run his truck over them and the property.”
The Oklahoma-based news site Enidnews.com has two very helpful quotes to understand the situation. First, from the manager, whom you have to admire because of how they manage to turn a disaster into a usable marketing opportunity:
“We are No. 1 on TripAdviser, and we don’t have angry guests. We make sure our guests are happy, but, this person, he was difficult to talk to and wouldn’t listen. He purposely drove through to kill front desk staff.”
Also, there’s a bit of information from Parsley explaining why he did what he did — which, I should mention, was right in front of a police officer that Parsley had called earlier to intervene in the dispute. This is a quote from Parsley’s police interview:
“They thought he was bluffing, and he proved he wasn’t.”
See? They thought he was bluffing. The man’s hands were tied — he pretty much had to drive into that lobby. He now faces several criminal charges.
Oh, Mr. Parsley. You hot-headed, grumpy old idiot.
Contact the author at jason@jalopnik.com.