Weirdo Caller Wants Old Pickup Truck

I work at car rental store and not an actual call center, but we answer the phone and this is exactly the type of weird caller that would fit in here. Answering the phone at a retail store is just like in a call center, with the added excitement of likely having to deal with the caller in person at some point after getting off the phone with them 😱

Me: [Answers phone – official greeting]

Caller: [No greeting or context] Do you rent old pickup trucks?

Me: No, all of our vehicles are brand new.

Caller: I want the oldest pickup truck you have!

Me: We assign vehicles to guests based on their reserved class. We try to accommodate reasonable requests, but there is no way we can guarantee a specific year, make, or model. Also, none of our fleet vehicles are more than a couple years old, so it really wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

Caller: Is there an office location near [landmark]?!

Me: Yes, the [street name] location.

Caller: Do they have old pickup trucks?!

Me: I dunno, I can’t access their inventory from here.

I could have checked the other location’s rental inventory, but none of this was making any sense to me. Keep in mind I’m not paraphrasing or abridging the conversation– the short, curt way of talking is exactly what he was saying. I finally decided to ask the question:

Me: Why do you need an old truck so badly?

Caller: [click]

My guess was that he intended to do something reckless with the vehicle and wanted a beater so we would be less likely to notice the damage. He showed up in person a few days later and rented a new pickup truck without any issues. But the look on his face was priceless when I saw the notes under his phone number and said “oh right, you were the one demanding to rent an old truck and hung up on me.”