Busted!

Today I decided to buy a couple of things after work and took the metro on the way back to my apartment. At the Lausanne Gare stop I was minding my own business when the metro "officers" boarded the train to check for tickets. Since I have a monthly pass, I had no concern and confidently provided it to them before they had even questioned me.

When they swiped my card, however, I noticed that the little red light on the officer's hand-held machine illuminated rather than the little green one that I was expecting. "That's not a good sign", I thought to myself. And it wasn't. It turns out that my pass had expired...yesterday. And since I was unaware of this, I hadn't refilled my card today or simply bought a single-ride ticket.

The damage...CHF60 (about $60). And had I not paid on the spot, it would have been CHF80.

Oh well, there's nothing that I can do about it now. I just wish the guy had shown a little compassion and even pretended to consider cutting me some slack. I mean, it's not as if I had snuck on the train with no ticket and tried to pull a fast one. The guy could clearly see on the back of my card that I've refilled my pass every month since June. Is one day of ignorant freeloading such a big deal? I guess so...