This door was slammed shut, so where's the damn window?

Last night, I was fired from my waitressing job, for being 5 minutes late--3 days in a row. Now, as ironic as it is, they have a "call if you're going to be late" policy, but calling them doesn't seem to make being a mere five minutes late a lesser evil than it was without a call. But as I was warned by a couple people recently(incredibly enough, regulars who hear more gossip than I ever did as an employee) that there were people who wanted me gone, because they didn't like me. Well, I don't know who these people are, but they finally got their wish. After a year and a half of good service, and being someone they could always call on in a pinch, I got the shaft over five measely minutes. Sure, it's happened a few times, I'm usually there right at 5pm, by the skin of my teeth. But they always seemed to harass me if I wasn't clocked in directly at 5. (At the time station: "It's five-oh-ONE, Bri, why are you late?") Considering that when all 6-12 workers show up at 5pm, there is virtually NOONE in the restaurant. What is the big deal? There used to be employees that never got fired after being over 30 mins late on a weekly basis. The hypocrisy astounds me.
How can they do this to me, knowing full well I just got a new car, just moved into a new apartment, and can't go without the money? Whatever...I gave up on that place a while ago, but stuck around because I hadn't found a better job yet. They beat me to the punch, what can I say?
But supposedly this whole ordeal is an oppotunity for me to go elsewhere and make better money. I've actually been looking into other jobs for a month now, because I was frustrated with the utter ridiculousness of what I had to put up with for the money(or lack thereof). In the meantime, I guess I'm supposed to sit here on my broke ass and wait for people to call me back from places I've already applied and interviewed. Oh, here's my thumb.