Seriously, that's really very poor form if it happened the way the OP said. Undoubtedly there is someone from Wally World out there reading this thread. I think a little investigation would be appropriate. I have always found ground staff at IAD to be less than helpful, to put it mildly. This can be written off out of hand, as complaints about AAnother AAirline's MIA-based ground staff tend to be, or perhaps someone can look into the matter further (and trust me, I'm no authoritarian).