Motel Owner Refuses to Let Freezing Girl in Not Knowing She’ll Deprive Him of Business – Story of the Day

Laura was freezing and desperate for shelter as she reached a motel in an unknown town. When the owner refused her entry, Laura took drastic steps to teach him a lesson, not realizing her karma would soon catch up with her.

Cold winds blasted through the area, making the trees bend and shiver. The reporter's voice through the car stereo reminded her the weather would worsen. Laura tilted her head to look at the road ahead as she drove down the icy path.

The snowstorm was finally here, and this winding road through the mountains terrified her. On one side of the path were towering mountains, and the other led downhill. She had to find a place to crash before night, but she didn't know how long she would need to drive.

Suddenly, the car sputtered to a stop. "No, no, come on!" Laura didn't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. She tried to start the engine but to no avail. Then, to her horror, she noticed smoke emanating from the bonnet.

Worried, she hurriedly opened the car door and got out, only to be met with icy gusts. Her faux leather jacket provided little protection from the cold, and her heels teetered on the snowy surface. Holding onto the car body for support, she moved toward the bonnet, not daring to look at the slope only a few steps behind her.

There was no barrier fence. And the weather kept getting worse. Laura decided to take the risk. She hurried to find safety but ended up losing her footing and tumbled down the steep mountain.

When she opened her eyes, her head was throbbing. She had been lying in the snow. She rose to her feet, brushed the snow off her body, and set out on her way to find help. It was still day, so she reasoned she had been unconscious only for a few minutes.

As she walked alone along the icy road, she couldn't see a single soul or human habitation in sight. The cold winds made her shudder, so she pulled her jacket closer to herself, her feet aching from the heels. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she spotted a sign in the distance that read "MOTEL."

Laura was freezing, her feet ached, and her face had grown pale from the cold. Yet, she forced herself to walk toward the only shelter she could see. Arriving there, Laura noticed the "CLOSED" sign on the door. A heavy sigh escaped her lips. But she had to try this place.

She pushed the door open, letting in frigid gusts along with herself, and staggered toward the reception desk.

"We're closed!" The motel owner, Mr. Cooper, dismissed her instantly, his gaze fixed on the TV in front of him.

"Ple-Please, sir," She was shivering. "I just want a place for tonight. Can you make some adjustments?"

"We don't accept people after closing time, so get the hell out of here!" Mr. Cooper yelled at her.

"Look, I have nowhere to go," Laura said as she removed some sticky bills and coins from her jacket pocket. Her phone and purse were still in the car. She told Mr. Cooper how she'd fallen down the hill and ended up at the motel. But the man still didn't budge.

Instead, he stepped out from behind the counter, grabbed her jacket sleeve, and shoved her out of the motel.

"GET LOST, girl!" he yelled and slammed the door shut in her face.

Laura pleaded with him to let her in, but all her requests fell on deaf ears. She shivered from the cold as she stood on the sidewalk. Eventually, her attention was drawn to a series of lights in the distance. It looked like a small cluster of houses.

Laura trudged on the snowy roads for another 15 minutes, battling the cold and discomfort of her heels, and finally stood across from a modest wooden house. When she knocked on the door, an elderly woman answered.

"Hello, I'm sorry for intruding, but ca-can I please crash here for the night?" Laura asked her immediately.

"Oh!" paused the woman. "Are you from some other town? Haven't seen you around, dear."

"Ye-yes," Laura replied. "Can I come in?"

The woman introduced herself as Maria and welcomed Laura inside. She then served her some tea, and Laura was immensely grateful for her help. They began chatting, and Laura told her how she had ended up in a new town and how Mr. Cooper had kicked her out.

"I wonder why he's so rude…" She shook her head.

"It's not just you, daring. Nobody likes him," Maria informed her, and Laura was intrigued. The older woman revealed Mr. Cooper had a bit of a temper and got into frequent conflicts with the town residents, which was why not many people liked him.

"But then, how has he been able to keep his business?" Laura asked. "He doesn't look like someone who's good with people."

"Oh, that's just a cover for the illegal alcohol business he operates," Maria told her. "That's what the rumors say. I seldom leave my house, dear, but I overheard some women discussing it at the grocery store one day, and I know some entrance behind his motel leads to a room full of alcohol."

After tea, Laura had a hearty dinner and crashed into Maria's guest bedroom. But she couldn't sleep a wink as her thoughts kept returning to how disrespectfully Mr. Cooper had treated her. She could've died of cold, and he wouldn't have budged. Laura had an idea.

She walked out of her room, looking for Maria, and found her in the kitchen. She asked the older woman for her phone and called the cops. Laura gave the cops a tip about Mr. Cooper's illegal business. As she hung up, she borrowed a sweater and a pair of shoes from Maria and set out to Mr. Cooper's motel.

When she arrived, she saw two cops interrogating Mr. Cooper. She hid behind a tree, eavesdropping on the conversation.

"I assure you there's nothing illegal going on here, officers!" Mr. Cooper insisted. "And I can't let you barge into my establishment like that! Do you have a warrant?"

"Well, sir, we don't need to produce a warrant in this case as it's an exigent circumstance. There's a risk the evidence will be tampered with or get lost. So please step aside!"

"Exactly!" Laura approached them confidently. "I was the one who made the call, officers. I'm certain he's hesitant to let you in because his shady dealings will be revealed!"

"You?" Mr. Cooper yelled. "I know you! Are you doing this because I didn't let you stay here?"

Mr. Cooper angrily approached Laura, but one of the cops stepped forward and warned him to step back.

Laura and Mr. Cooper waited in the motel's lobby while the cops searched the whole place. Unfortunately for Laura, the cops didn't find anything.

"Can you tell us who gave you the information, ma'am?" Officer Baxton asked. "There's nothing illegal going on here."

Blood drained off Laura's face, and then it hit her. "Wait! The secret passage!" she said. "I can prove he's hiding the alcohol here, officers!"

Laura stormed out to the back of the building, where she noticed a bulkhead protruding from the snow-covered ground. "Ask him to unlock it!" she told the cops. The cops looked at Mr. Cooper suspiciously and asked him to unlock it.

Everyone descended into a dark room. When Mr. Cooper flicked on the light switch, Laura was shocked. There was no booze. Just rows of shelves packed with groceries.

"But Maria—the woman in the wooden house nearby—told me it was here!" Laura cried as he narrated everything Maria had told her.

"That recluse?" Mr. Cooper fumed. "Is she so bored that she's cooking up stories about me?"

"I assume she fell prey to rumors, ma'am," Officer Baxton said. "Happens with age. Now, coming to you, you've wasted the police's time, so we'll fine you."

Laura was disappointed, but she wouldn't let Mr. Cooper slide for how he had treated her. She wanted her revenge. That evening, on her way to Maria's home, Laura stopped by a pet shop to buy cockroaches and mice.

"I-I know it sounds strange, but my team and I are doing this research, so we need them urgently…I'm not sure I can find another pet store here, and I'm new to town," she told the store owner.

The guy stared at her, and she wondered if he had bought her story.

"We do keep mice, ma'am," he replied after a pause, and she heaved a sigh of relief. "By when do you need it? And I'll need some time to arrange the roaches…" He went on to ask her how many roaches and mice she needed, and Laura answered carefully, making sure her lies were not caught.

As they had decided, she revisited his store later that evening and bought the pests with the money she had. Then she stopped right outside the bulkhead. Nobody knew about Laura's plan. She removed her hairpin and tried picking the lock. A couple of turns of the clip…and click! The lock on the bulkhead slid open.

She descended the stairs into the room and released the pests into the space. Suddenly, she heard someone's footsteps. Someone was coming. Laura dashed to the stairs, hurriedly climbed out of the bulkhead, and disappeared into the night.

The next morning, when she met Maria at the breakfast table, the older woman told her the good news that Mr. Cooper's motel had a pest problem overnight.

"The milkman said some people were so enraged, they went on to sue him…" Maria continued.

Laura was thrilled, but she wanted to see Mr. Cooper's suffering with her own eyes. So she told Maria she was stepping out of a walk and instead went to Mr. Cooper's motel, where angry customers were storming out of the establishment.

"Man was so rude when I said I was short of cash! Had to call a friend and ask her to pay. Now he'll know how it feels to be helpless!"

"The worst service I've ever received in my entire life. He better shut this crap of a place down!" A man grumbled as he walked away, leaving the door open.

Laura approached the motel and stood behind the door, listening to what was happening inside.

"Please don't cancel the bookings!" Mr. Cooper pleaded with the customers. "It's a small rodent issue, and I'll deal with it ASAP!"

"Small issue? They're all over my bathroom!" someone yelled at him.

Suddenly, someone screamed. "Eww! They're here too!"

Panic ensued among the guests. Suitcases were toppled, and chairs were upturned. Mice and cockroaches had made their way to the lobby and darted all over the place. The customers dashed out of the motel, crowding the path outside and yelling at Mr. Cooper.

Laura scurried away and hid behind a tree, watching Mr. Cooper surrender. He paid the irate clients, and after the last guest left, he flipped the motel sign to "CLOSED." His motel was finally shutting down.

Laura was excited to share this news with Maria. The snow around was gently melting as she finally headed down the road to Maria's house. She was still a few steps away when a cop car overtook her. Officer Baxton stepped out and cuffed her.

"You are under arrest for trespassing on and damaging Mr. Cooper's private property. We know the rodents and roaches issue was your doing."

Laura wondered how the cops figured out she was behind it as she sat in the interrogation room a couple of hours later.

"So, will you confess to your crimes, Miss Laura?" the detective across from her asked. "In case you're wondering how we know you were the one behind it all, the CCTVs at the motel came in handy."

Laura knew there was no way out, so she confessed everything. "...I wanted to teach him a lesson because he left me to die in the cold!" she finished.

The detective then told her how Mr. Cooper was distraught by what had happened. His wife was diagnosed with cancer on the night of the snowstorm, and now that the motel was closed, he didn't know how to pay for his wife's treatment.

Laura felt a pang of guilt as she realized what she had done. Probably, his wife's diagnosis was why Mr. Cooper was in a bad mood the night before. He was in despair.

"Mr. Cooper intends to press charges for damages and endangering the guests. You could be facing jail time and restitution to the owner. However, there is an option. You can post a bond for yourself for $20,000. It would secure your release until your trial, miss."

Laura wasn't a bad person. She knew that. So she offered $20,000 to Mr. Cooper for his wife's treatment and decided to stay in jail, awaiting her trial.

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