My Salvation Army Story

Employers reimburse some of the employees' expenses, if they are legitimate. Education and safety gear are some of them. This story is about what I made up and sold to our so-called Safety Manager and my supervisor about the safety boots I had purchased and it shows how naive these people are. I did it mainly because as I've said this before most of the Canadians feel jealous when they see a foreigner, particularly someone like me from that specific part of the world, purchases valuable and quality merchandise.

I went to a branch of Red Wings and picked a pair of safety boots for a little over $300. My main goal was and still is to use the boots mainly for hiking, not for work! The guy in the store recommended another pair but because that was very heavy I picked the one I thought would be more comfortable although now I think I need to change this to a bigger size that it feels too tight! Why did I not do that in the first place? The answer is very easy: I become a lazy fool from time to time! 

With that said, I put the box in a tote with a big Salvation Army written at each side. This was given to me by my Mom and I did not ask her where she had obtained it from. I showed it to my so-called supervisor and as soon as he sees that he smiles and I think he believes that I had purchased it from a Salvation Army store! I decide to play along and rake that to the Safety Manager and tell him that I had purchased it from a Salvation Army store. He looks at the boots which obviously had never been worn and confirms that! I tell him that the guy who purchased it got into an incident, becomes injured and permanently disable as a result of them. He then sells the boots to the store to cover part of hi expense despite the fact that he is covered by insurance! The boots which are normally over $400 are sold for a little over $300! The idiot buys it, despite the fact that the receipt says Red Wings Shoes clearly on the top! He then approves it, I take it to our manager and he approves it as well. I then send the Expense Report and simply wait for reimbursement and will enjoy the boots in one of the upcoming hikes soon! 

I used another pair of Red Wings boots in a beautiful hike to the summit of Maze Mountain with my buddy Stout a few years ago but I'm not in the same state of mind and shape these days. I'm older and mentally shattered but I will try to do as many hikes as I can this summer and not only compensate for the losses but also bank more. 

(Photo: One of a few Red Wings boots which are made for hiking. I cannot tell whether this one is also a safety boot or not but when I asked the fella in the shop the other day he didn't know anything about it. The previous one was tried once, as far as I remember and was not too bad. I will have to see how this one will work after I change it with a bigger size)