Leap years—the moment every four years when the year just gets one day longer because life just isn’t long enough. Leap day, also known as February 29th, is a fun anomaly when it shows up.
And naturally, some people end up born on Leap Day—which means they only age once every four years.
However, some people are unaware of the existence of such a day, such as a store clerk that Redditor Independent-Low7712 encountered. After having his birthday denied and his alcohol purchase turned down, he got a little upset.
Needing objective feedback on if his reaction was over the line, he went to the popular subReddit “Am I The A**hole?” or “AITA” for ideas on how to proceed:
“AITA for getting a cashier in trouble because he didn’t believe in february 29?”
Our original poster, or OP, set the scene wherein this confrontation between he and the cashier took place.
“Today after leaving work I needed to pick up some wine so I made a stop to a local grocery store to get 2 different bottles that he and some cleaning supplies (bleach and cat sand).”
“I have a permanent babyface So I’m always ready to give the ID, usually there isn’t a problem, the cashier just hands it back and I go in my merry way.”
“I get to the register, (it’s morning so it’s empty) I put my things when the cashier (Kevin) gives me a side eye and the following conversation ensues:”
“‘K: Aren’t you too young to be buying wine?’
‘Me:I get that a lot, I am 21’ -I hand my ID to kevin.”
“‘K: good try but this is fake.’
‘Me: excuse me?’
‘K: this is a fake ID, you are not gonna fool me, and I bet the bleach is for you to get high.’
‘Me: why would you think is fake? And how am I gonna get high with bleach??’
‘K: because February just has 28 days and this says February 29! I am not stupid.’
‘Me: what..?’
‘K: Now get out before I call the security guard’
‘Me: Excuse me but February has 29 days every 4 years, and I need my ID back’
‘K: no, I’m destroying this, now get out.'”
“(Note that I have bad anxiety and confrontation makes me retreat, so I was completely ready to just go to another grocery store.)”
At this point, our original poster, or OP, was much less than amused.
“(Kevin gets out of his till to go find something to the staff room.)”
“Me: Excuse me but I need my ID! (I’m raising my voice at this point and following him).’
‘K: no, I’m gonna cut it now go away, this is staff only.'”
“The grocery store is still pretty empty and he was the only cashier in the shift, preety common where I live.”
“I start to shut down when a woman in a different uniform that was there raised her voice from the other door to the staff room.”
Finally this other person showed up who was a much bigger help.
“‘W: what is happening here? Kevin what are you doing?’
‘K: This kid is trying to buy alcohol and things to get high with a fake ID.’
‘Me: It’s not fake! Please give it back!’
‘K: get me some scissors so I can snap it.
‘W: Kevin February 29 is real, it;s a leap year.’
‘K; No, leap years are a myth from Greece before the church took over, they aren’t real (the woman takes the ID from Kevin’s hands and hands it back to me, who’s almost in tears.)'”
And she promised to help.
“‘W: I’m so sorry, I will have an stern talk with Kevin, let me check you out.’
‘Me: (I just nod and follow her back to my shopping, she gives me my groceries and I pay for them.)’
‘W: Could you come with me to sign a paper stating what Kevin has done?’
‘Me: Eh..sure? For what?’
‘W: Because no one believes me when he does this things and I need it in paper so I can get him reported.'”
“I just went and signed statement (I still don’t understand why she needed one.)”
But OP’s roommate got under OP’s skin.
“I told what happened to my room,ate and he told me I shouldn’t have signed anything because now Kevin’s gonna get fired for a very minor thing.”
“And that the woman was probably just mad at him for something else and wanted to use this to get him out of the store, and that is my fault for having such a confusing birthdate??”
“I don’t know reddit I’m just tired, am I the a**hole?”
Anonymous strangers weighed in by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
- NAH – No A**holes Here
Redditors very clearly thought OP was in the right here.
“Yeah, OP, you did not get him fired. He, and his insanity did so, you were sadly just a victim of it. This woman has most likely filed several reports about Kevin being unfit for, well, anything.”
“However, since the sh*t he pulls is so absolutely insane, I mean, come on, leap years are an ancient Greek hoax, no one is THAT stupid right? right?????”
“She wasn’t believed. However, now she actually has a written notice from a customer of his actions, part of which likely would have been a federal felony, so maybe she can get this idiot finally fired.”
“That is a good thing he has only himself to thank for because this guy needs to go back to school and is unfit for any role in society involving other humans.”-Thuis001
“Their behavior was disgusting to OP, I work a check out job and I would be horrified if a coworker did that.”
“My first thought was that they should have got a manager over to get them to check but I’m not sure if this person was the only one in the store.”
“NTA store staff shouldn’t pull that kind of thing where they threaten to destroy someone’s ID.”
“Someone like that shouldn’t be working a customer service job if they aren’t able to be reasonable with people.”
“Hence OP wasn’t TA in putting forward a complaint as its important for people to speak out about difficult people like this.”-555Cats555
“NTA I’ve worked as a teller and other jobs that required me to check customer’s ID, and our instructions were to hand it back even if we recognized the ID as a fake.”
“Exceptions were made for certain documents such as passports, SSN and that was for the bank manager to make, not us.”
“And I don’t think those were destroyed, the cashier’s behavior and decision to destroy an ID he deemed fake was outrageous, so if he gets fired that’s not your fault.”-drezetvcxfvfa
“NTA. They should be held accountable for their actions, and they probably did not even follow the procedure for a fake id properly anyways.”
“If it was a fake id, shouldn’t they lead with ‘Security guard/Manager, could you please come over here?'”
“Versus waiting until the situation escalates to getting someone else involved? Seems like they felt like they had a little bit of power, and they thought ‘gotcha’.”
“Does the cashier/average person know how many days are in June? What if your id said June 31st? Looks legit!”-agent674253
And people were shocked that folks like Kevin are allowed to keep jobs like that.
“Big old NTA, Kevin sucks and deserves what ever the repercussions are for his insufferable actions. Grocery store worker on a power trip can’t destroy someone’s government I.D.”
“How the hell would you have gotten home if you were driving?”
“He might not even get fired, but they need a record of his behavior if they are going to lawfully fire him and it sounds like he would deserve it if he makes recurring bad decisions like this as indicated by his coworker.”-knksd4
“First of all: Kevin shouldn’t be doing this job if he’s this unprofessional. He should be stacking shelves or something, if not fired.”
“If he had cut your ID, you should have called the police to make sure it is on paper. The fallout is on Kevin, the Inconvenience falls on you anyway.”
“Second of all: You seem to have a problem with confrontation, just like I used to have at your age.”
“You NEED to work on that asap, and ‘learn to stand up for yourself, even be an a**hole if the situation calls for it.'”
“Especially with your baby face (I can relate), or you’re going to keep getting in such situation and people will try to walk all over you.”
“Next time you meet a ‘Kevin’ who threatens to cut your ID: you just say, ‘It is real, and if you dare cut it, I will call the police on you.'”-belginiusI
“NTA. You absolutely did the right thing. To be extremely stupid and not ‘believe’ in 29 February is one thing but to illegally retain someone’s id and threatening to cut it, is a totally different thing.”
“This is were it gets serious. I am sure he would have cut it if that woman hadn’t arrived at that point and who had to go through all the trouble to issue a new one? You! Not him!”
“From what you describe, this a**hole is probably giving sh*t to the employees and other customers as well and if he gets fired that is just the consequence of his shi**y behaviour.”
“I CONGRATULATE you for writing down what happened! We need more people that actually report things when something is wrong.”-SheWasXena
“From the other cashier’s statements, it is clear this is NOT the first time Kevin has done something so outrageous and rude.”
“People know about leap years. Kevin even knows about leap years, but he’s decided he doesn’t like them because of some weird historical conspiracy.”
“He was going to destroy your government issued ID because of his personal beliefs. Signing the paper does not make you an a**hole. It also doesn’t mean he will get fired.”
“There are at least three other people with far more responsibility for Kevin’s employment status than you: Kevin, the other cashier, and their manager. NTA”-BowzersMom
After most of the feedback, OP followed up with an update:
“First of all thank you for the comments, you are all very nice. And to anyone who doesn’t believe me it’s fair, its very outlandish and I left a some stuff out, also my english isn’t good at all.”
“My partner came to see me after his shift ended and we talked about it, he chewed up my roommate for saying that to me and I’m now staying with him for a bit, until my anxiety gets better.”
I”n the discussion my boyfriend found out that Kevin is actually a friend of my roommate (or at least they know each other) and that’s why he (roommate) was upset at me.”
“I’ve seen people confused about who was crying, it was me, I have severe anxiety and issues with ptsd due to trauma (I don’t really want to elaborate).”
“I know I don’t have a spine and I’m working on it, but it’s not easy. The dialog left some stuff out as it was translated from a completely different language and paraphrased, kevin had been absolutely rambling about the 29 not being real.”
“And the woman (people call her manager, I believe she was one now looking back or at least superior to kevin) came out of the same place Kevin was going into.”
“No, the store wasn’t completely empty but there was no one at the registers, it’s a Wednesday morning. No, not everyone clapped, and I paid for my groceries.”
“If I learn what happened to Kevin I will put it here. Kevin is definitely older than me, he’s an adult and it’s not the famous kevin sadly (I live in europe so no chance).”
“Much love to all the people who dm me but I don’t have the time to answer all, you are all amazing. Thanks to all the leap year babies for sharing their stories, is fun to see more people like me. Love to all of you <3”
Thankfully OP’s license and his birthday are both safe from conspiracy-theory-driven clerks.