Hacker News Reader

Comment by zxcvbn4038 | Hacker News Reader

I once had a Texas policemen unholster his pistol on me because he thought my US Passport was a fake ID and my travelers checks were some sort of scam. Then his backup arrived and explained both items to him — and the Dairy Queen cashier that had called 911 on me. Stuff like that is why you have to stay on the interstate.

View on HN

can you elaborate on this story? why the hell did the cashier call 911 on you, and what state were you from?

how long ago was this?

Based on "traveler's checks", I'm going to guess at least a couple decades ago. Cashier probably called 911 because they thought GP was trying to commit fraud with "fake money".

I mean, in what world can you cash travelers cheques at a dairy queen?

It's been a very long time, but my grandmother always used to give me spending money for vacations in the form of Amex traveller's checks. IIRC you could use them in essentially any situation where you could use an ordinary paper check (which was substantially more common back in those days).

Dairy Queen was a favorite from my childhood, I had moved away from Texas years earlier so I decided to indulge while visiting. These days I’m more into Sonic - the food is better, they have a greater variety of sweet treats, and I really like their iOS app.

Wait, you tried to pay with travelers checks at a Dairy Queen?

Yeah, do you want to get shot?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com