I had the nearly the exact same experience with my Gen 2 Prius at the HomeDepot in Manchester. I ordered a pallet of flooring, the forklift operator brought the pallet outside and saw my Prius, and then refused to load it. So I took a case of flooring one at a time off the pallet, and filled up the entire car with it. The forklift operate just stared in disbelief as the Prius absorbed an entire pallet of flooring. Then I drove on I84 just fine.