Why You Should Avoid The Ampco Systems Parking Garage At Sky Harbor. By Jeff Smith WILLIAM JARRELL IS no Felix Frankfurter, but he does understand the rudiments of simple justice. Frank Bradley is no J. Pierpont Morgan, but he does have a journeyman's grasp of capitalist principles. It was inevitable then that when the two met over a matter of customer satisfaction, satisfaction was the least of the various results. Our story begins, ominously, with a family illness. Jarrell's mom, back in Tennessee, was pretty sick around Thanksgiving. Jarrell, a Tucson jewelry dealer, got in touch with a travel agent about a round-trip plane ticket out of Tucson International, and was told it would be $1,200. Ouch. The next news, as Tucson travelers have come wearily to know, was that for $400, a few hours of driving, and an over-priced parking bill, he could make the flight out of Sky Harbor in Phoenix. For the eight hundred bucks difference, Jarrell figured he'd make the drive to the Valley of the Smog. To make a long story somewhat manageable, Jarrell got back from Tennessee, got his luggage, made his way to his '84 pickup truck, parked near the elevator in the covered, secured parking garage, and found it raped and pillaged. The rear window was busted open, the dash was trashed for the stereo, and everything of value locked inside the cab had grown legs and hiked. Jarrell called the cops. Who arrived shortly, with their fingerprint kit and all that cool cop stuff, which Jarrell figured was a waste of time, but what they hey, there are procedures to be followed, and everybody gets lucky sometimes. What actually bugged Jarrell most was when the cops asked him, well-nigh incredulously, how come he was dumb enough to park his truck in the covered parking garage, instead of leaving it in one of those park-and-ride lots where you can barely see the terminal from here, and have to wait for a shuttle to show up and haul you there? Oh, I don't know...Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you've just driven 110 miles of hell to an unfamiliar airport and you're probably running late, and to a logical mind--as opposed to a street-smart one--it makes a certain amount of sense to leave your vehicle in an indoor garage adjoining the terminal, behind a manned entrance booth, with electronic gates controlling ingress and egress, instead of out in the pitiless Phoenix sun, half a mile away. Bad move, the cops told him--they get called to Sky Harbor all the time for vehicle burglaries, most of them in the covered garages, on account of most of the rich folks and the airlines pilots use them, and lots of times they leave their personal sidearms locked in their rides, and burglars just love to find guns to steal. About this time Jarrell is wondering why, if everybody with a lick of sense avoids the covered, secured parking, nobody told him about it. Like his travel agent, or the ticket agent, the hare krishnas, skycap or somebody. But Jarrell kept these thoughts to himself, along with what one might expect was a fair rash of frustration, what with a sick mom in Tennessee, his truck only recently out of the body shop, all his stuff trashed or stolen...and a mind-numbing two-hour drive before he reached home. They wrapped up the on-scene work and Jarrell drove away... ...to stop at the guard-booth on his way out, where the woman on duty said, "That'll be seventy-four dollars." That's where William Jarrell's sense of justice comes in. The ensuing conversation went more or less like: "Don't you think it's a little unreasonable to charge somebody $74 to park in your garage where thieves come and steal your stuff and leave, unmolested?" No response. "I know the ticket includes a disclaimer, but doesn't it seem unfair to charge, under the circumstances?" No response. "Well, I'd like to speak to your supervisor." Angry glare and an offer to let Jarrell pass through the gate, if he would sign a promissory note to pay in full, pending negotiations with the aforementioned Frank Bradley, the manager. Sometimes, the attendant informed Jarrell, the company, Ampco Systems Parking, Inc., was willing to split the difference. About this time, Jarrell just wanted to be anywhere but there, so he took the note to sign, but also about this time the cops arrived on scene again, with a briefcase they assumed was Jarrell's and wanted him to I.D. Jarrell looked it over, said it was similar but not his, which seemed to upset the officers more than one might have expected. They thought it might be a bomb, Jarrell said. Oh, boy. Well, that was back on November 26. Jarrell is home again in Tucson now, and has been in telephonic communication with Frank Bradley of Ampco Systems. The conversation pitted Jarrell's child-like sense of right and wrong against Bradley's mercantile pragmatism. Jarrell expressed his feeling that it would be both fair--and practical, from a public relations perspective--to waive parking fees for customers who are robbed during their stay. Bradley wasn't buying. Frankly, I can see his point. From a purely capitalist view. If burglaries in the garage are as common as the cops led Jarrell to believe, comping the victims could get to be a considerable loss of revenue, not to mention the negative impression conveyed. And after all, burglars like those who ripped Mr. Jarrell pay their parking fees. They get their ticket, drive on in, case the joint, hit a half-dozen cars, and drive out with a trunk-full of loot...all in under an hour, for the minimum fee.

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