When you walk into this Wrigleyville bar, the first thing you will notice are print-outs posted all over the walls, beer taps, bathroom doors, and everything else (we even saw a waitress stick one to herself as a joke) about the $2.00 coat check in the basement. Most of them just say "Coat Check downstairs, $2.00". Some say: "The coat check girl may or may not make out w / you, no promises. Coat check $2 located in the basement". More ominously, one says "Please excuse the laughter when you call tomorrow looking for your lost coat / Coat check $2 located in the basement. / Thank you." Pictures of the signs are posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/33119710@N06/sets/72157610754268333/
So they want you to put your coat in their basement for $2.00. Fine, but most people don't because it's not the type of place where you would do that. People for the most part kept their coats with them at the bar, just like every other bar.
I was there with a group of about 15 people. We were sitting in one area and we all piled up our coats at the table. When my friend was leaving, we discovered that his coat was gone. We looked everywhere. During the search, I realized mine was missing too.
At this point, I actually started thinking maybe they had a point with their coat check thing. My fiance's coat was still there, so we decided to go and check it before that got stolen too. My friend gave up and angrily left.
At the coat check in the basement, on a whim, my fiance asked if there had been any lost coats returned to the coat check. The coat check girl replied yes, they had two. "Let me see them" I asked. She pulled them out and sure enough they were mine and my friend's coats. At this point, she nervously explained that "sometimes, if we see coats around, we check them for you." (later she told us that this was her first day). She continued "all you have to do is pay $2.00 to get them back." One of the employees there, around age 30-35, bald, was visibly intoxicated and had been walking all around the bar. We saw him, but we assumed he wasn't stealing our things.
So long story short, we paid the $4.00 for the coats that we never chose to check. I know this is only $4 for me, but how many people has this happened to? More importantly, how many people's coats were taken this way who thought their coat must have been stolen, and assumed that the bar's employees would not go around the bar taking coats to the basement? I really wonder what happens to those coats. Also, anyone could have gone downstairs, looked at the coats, and paid $2 to get mine or my friends (rather expensive) coats. If anything, this coat check made my coat less secure.
If they want to generate cash through a coat check, fine, but it isn't right to force people to pay to get their own belongings back. The sign saying they will laugh at you if you lost your coat makes it especially egregious, because it implies that there are "thieves" about and that the bar will be powerless to help you if they strike. As it turns out, the only thieves are the bar's employees.
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