THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM

In the early days of my career as an attorney, a woman in her 80’s slipped on an oil slick in the parking garage beneath her apartment, which had been left unattended by the building’s maintenance staff. She suffered a broken hip.

Luckily, the victim’s daughter visited our law office that same day to see what could be done to help her mom.  Something told me to show up at the apartment building early the next morning before 8:0 a.m. – with my trusty old 35-millimeter camera.

Early enough to photograph the still fresh oil slick and the cleaning crew that showed up a half-hour later with a tub of soapy water, and their own photographer, to mop up the oil slick:

“Oil slick, what oil slick? Why, here are photographs that prove the old lady fell on as totally pristine a surface as one could ever find!”

Got some good shots to send to the insurance company:

“Here’s the oil slick before the cleaning crew arrived.  Here’s your cleaning crew engaged in cleaning up the oil slick. Here’s the claims adjuster you assigned to manage the claim. Here’s the photographer you hired to take phony pictures.”

Needless to say, the insurance company compensated the old lady for her injuries pretty quick. Without putting up a fight.