It’s a minor story admittedly, but there is a report out there that D.C. Mayor Fenty send an aide to buy him an iPhone on Friday, and cut in line in the process:
I have a brief iPhone/government story. I work in downtown DC and went to the AT&T store on 17th and Pennsylvania around 4:45 to get in line. About 35 people were in front of me, everyone was nice, people from AT&T were giving out water and all was well. They and another store I visited during lunch wouldn’t or couldn’t tell us how many they had, so the line kept growing until it was about 70 or so. Six o’clock finally comes and they let some people in, and it’s really slow going–like one person every ten minutes, even though there are a bunch of employees and registers in there. We later found out that AT&T’s system crashed.
So we’re all waiting outside and some of the people around me notice a double parked car with a driver and a few dudes outside all on Blackberries talking and looking into the store. A little while later, a guy comes out with three bags and gives them to the driver. AT&T was only allowed to sell one iPhone per customer. Then the same guy disappears back into the store, into the back room. The manager comes out to update people and someone asks him what just happened and we find out that the phones are for D.C.’s mayor, Adrian Fenty. The guy comes out again and quickly gets into an SUV parked in front of the store. By this point, more than a few people are asking questions, and after a guy behind me yells out “fix the schools first,” the guy gives him the finger and sneers, “there’s only 15 left.”
At least Philadelphia’s Mayor and the decency to wait in line.
H/T: Radley Balko
