Never judge a book by it's cover

[C.J.]

The "Pre qualification to get some Rolex" thread by Rto reminded me of a story that I'll probably never forget. All of the talk about the poor judgment and tactics used by some of the AD's mentioned in that thread reminded me
of this, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Every year the Taj Mahal casino has a huge jewelry show with very high end pieces. At this particular show the cheapest piece was over $9000 US and the most expensive was well over $100,000. Trump would have his most exclusive and biggest players at a gaming tournament on the casino floor on the day of the show. Trump would give the players comps for the jewelry, the more they spent and lost over the previous year, the higher the comp would be.

During the show every thing was for sale, therefor it was openly displayed in the ballrooms on the second floor. Because of it's accessibility the casino wanted plain clothes, armed security. In NJ casino security can't carry firearms, so the vendors would hire us on the side.

During the show a guy walked in and began looking at some pieces. He appeared to have been in his mid to late fifties, heavy set, balding on top with long un-groomed hair on the sides of his head and was very sloppily dressed. He wore blue corduroy pants, they were at least two sizes too large and were so faded in the seat and the knees that they looked paper thin and almost white in color. In addition to this he wore a blue T-shirt with a small pocket at the left chest, which was slightly torn on one side. The shirt was to small and barely covered his belly at the bottom, it was also very faded and appeared as though it was almost white in some areas. On his feet were a pair of brown dock shoes that were so worn that the heels were almost gone and they had faded to a very light tan.

Due to his appearance several of the vendors wanted him removed, even though he was very well spoken and polite. I explained to them that it was an open show and that he had done nothing wrong. Any access he had to leave the room if he had attempted to steal something was covered and I would not escort him out, as of yet.

The vendors, of course turned their noses up at him, because of how he was dressed. feeling as though he was unwelcome he left. After he left the usual comments were made, "how dare he come in here", "what did he think
this was, a free giveaway" etc. , etc. A short time later the guy came back, but this time he was accompanied by Donald Trump. Trump introduced the
guy to all of the vendors and explained to them that anything the man wanted, regardless of price was to be given to him immediately and the bill was to go directly to Trump. it turned out that the guy was some billionaire that made it late in life off of some .com idea he had.

He was a pretty down to earth guy who just didn't change that much because he hit it big. He ended up buying a necklace for his wife, which was very modest in comparison to the price of most of the other items. The guy insisted on paying for the item himself and left the vendors a pretty nice tip even though they treated him like shite the first time he was there.

I'll never forget how the people there laughed at the guy and put him down after he left the first time, and how they instantly dropped to their knees and kissed his arse when they knew he had money. It made me sick. Just goes to show us that everybody deserves a little respect and some basic common courtesy no matter how they appear. Maybe some of the AD's I've read about here should take a lesson from this.

Sorry for the long post