I don't know how I feel about this..

[bean]

Well, he did show up wearing a different shirt today. Still a black button up, but it had a barely visible pattern on it.

He caught me looking at the laptop when he wandered off to get something to eat, oops. Wasn't touching it, just noticed that he had an IRC client open, I was trying to figure out what irc network he was on and what channels, but everything was in either Chinese or Japanese. He walked up behind me, I noticed him, said sorry, he just shrugged and sat back down.

AccountingDrone, the majority of the clothing I wear daily is t-shirt and shorts, and most of the t-shirts I have are work related (company or vendor shirts). I do have a selection of (roughly defined) "polo" shirts, but I don't have anything dressy except for 1 button up shirt (that would probably explode if I tried to put it on these days), 1 pair of slacks, and 1 pair of dress shoes. A few pairs of sneakers, a few pairs of shorts, and a few pairs of jeans round it out - I only wear shorts, not pants, from about March until October.

[bean]

Okay, now it's getting weird. When questioned, he stated he was waiting for a local, high end university to open their dorms and libraries back up (SMU).

Except now he's taken to, well, bathing in our restrooms. He's been caught washing his hair in the sinks a few times, and 2 coworkers have told me they've seen him walk out of a stall in the restroom and found it completely trashed. TP everywhere, etc. And he's now entered "oh god I want to puke" territory with body odor.

He's now generating customer complaints, between bathing in our restrooms and nearly emptying the cafe with body odor.

For some reason, the wifi got knocked out at work yesterday (and no, it had nothing to do with me). Still out today. The router is completely dead, can't connect to it at all with my laptop today.

Something tells me a store mgr might have tripped over a power cable...

[AccountingDrone]

AccountingDrone, the majority of the clothing I wear daily is t-shirt and shorts, and most of the t-shirts I have are work related (company or vendor shirts). I do have a selection of (roughly defined) "polo" shirts, but I don't have anything dressy except for 1 button up shirt (that would probably explode if I tried to put it on these days), 1 pair of slacks, and 1 pair of dress shoes. A few pairs of sneakers, a few pairs of shorts, and a few pairs of jeans round it out - I only wear shorts, not pants, from about March until October.

I have trouble being arsed to dress up normally, I don't understand having 2 walk in closets full of clothing and 200 pair of shoes ...

I am a seriously nongirly girl =) I just want to be comfortable and look presentable.

[Pagan]

Okay, now it's getting weird. When questioned, he stated he was waiting for a local, high end university to open their dorms and libraries back up (SMU).

Except now he's taken to, well, bathing in our restrooms. He's been caught washing his hair in the sinks a few times, and 2 coworkers have told me they've seen him walk out of a stall in the restroom and found it completely trashed. TP everywhere, etc. And he's now entered "oh god I want to puke" territory with body odor.

He's now generating customer complaints, between bathing in our restrooms and nearly emptying the cafe with body odor.

You might want to contact a local mental health group. Sounds like the poor kid might have some problems and needs help.

Or like me - I have [quick rummage to count] 9 pair of the exact same black devacloth palazzo pants. When I find clothing that fits my fat ass, I buy it in multiples. Black goes with every color/pattern <shrug> I have some 8 or 9 assorted colors of polo shirts, and about 4 t shirts with images on them and a red guyabara. I also only own 1 pair black sneakers, 1 pair white sneakers, 1 pair really nice brown leather clogs, 1 pair black sandals and 1 pair black strappy mary janes. The non sneeker shoes are all brand new, and I have only worn the mary janes twice.

[I will amend that I do have other clothing, just I normally dont wear it day to day as it is too dressy, it is semiformalwear.]

I have trouble being arsed to dress up normally, I don't understand having 2 walk in closets full of clothing and 200 pair of shoes ...

I am a seriously nongirly girl =) I just want to be comfortable and look presentable.

You sound a lot like me. My idea of "formal wear" is dressing up my kilt.

Except for the shoes. I can understand that. But then, I wear a 9-9 1/2 US and have a narrow foot. Which leads to expensive shoes usually. But if I can find reasonably priced that I like, I'm gonna buy it.

Of course, in the summer, you're hard put to catch me with proper shoes on at all. It's now been a week since I've had more than flip-flops on.

[Seshat]

Is there some welfare organisation you can contact to tell them about this kid?

[Flying Grype]

He's probably a runaway/homeless... maybe washes his clothes and stuff at shelters and whatnot. Where does he go at night? If he's getting smelly and trashing the place it's time to call him out -- he has to clean up or leave because now he is disturbing the other customers and making you guys lose business.

Regarding the guy who died after 40 hours of WoW -- if I remember correctly he was a goldfarmer rather than an addict. He worked for someone who illegally sells game currency.

[trailerparkmedic]

Aside from the recent development of bathing at the store, I buy him waiting for SMU to reopen. Fiance HATED being at home for the summer when he was in college and if he'd had a laptop and been playing WoW, I can see him hiding from his family at the local wifi hotspot.

[bean]

Well, our wifi crapped out a few days ago. The geniuses that installed it put the modem in a closet, but put the router up in the ceiling... directly under a leaking skylight. The router isn't broadcasting at all - no SSID, no IP even if you know the SSID, nothing. And our IT person swears it's the modem. If it was the modem, people would be able to see the SSID of the router and probably pull an IP, but not be able to do anything afterwards. How do these people get into IT when a lowly cashier knows this shit?

My store has extremely high ceilings. We don't have a ladder than can reach the beams. Nor does anyone know what breaker the router is on.

The guy is still showing up, and I happened to walk in the bathroom as he walked out today. Hair in the sink, used toilet paper on the floor around one of the toilets, along with urine on the toilet seat. Really?

The kid has a damn nice laptop, and also has a recent Blackberry. He's definitely able to afford technology, a WoW account, and a decent cellphone plan (he spent most of today texting). But my willingness to help goes out the window when you're trashing the same toilet that I use every day.

As a side note, we've been getting constant calls asking if our wifi is back up yet. There's a Starbucks in the same building you mooches, go buy a cup of coffee and use theirs. Or snag a signal from the countless open routers in the neighborhood behind my store. Inside my apartment I can see almost 20 routers, several of them are wide open.

[bean]

Well, the kid is still hanging out in the store. At close tonight, I saw him walk out to his car, get in it, and.... just sit there. For 15 minutes. I was busy helping another coworker give a customer's car a jump start.

After the customer's car was running, I drove over to the kid's car. Just walked up... "Hey dude, is everything okay? Car trouble or anything?", he said "Nah everything's cool". I asked again "Are you sure everything is okay?", he replied yes, started his car, and drove off.

After seeing the car (early 90s Nissan, rear bumper hanging off, expired tags, interior trashed), and the fact that his shoes are now held together by duct tape, he's gotta be homeless. He's now been caught sleeping in our parking lot several times.

I really feel bad for the kid, and I'd like to help him in some way. I know I just recently cleaned out my closet of all the clothes that I can't fit into anymore, and they'd probably fit him (maybe a little loosely, but they wouldn't smell like a rotting corpse) - I was about to take them to Goodwill anyway. I just had a nice paycheck too, was thinking about giving him a store gift card so he can get some kind of meal... all he's buying now is bread and water.

I do know he's underage, so he can't use a store gift card for alcohol, nor could he use it for drugs.

I'm going to email a couple of teacher friends and ask them what I should do.

[Hyndis]

Wearing the same sort of clothes shouldn't be a problem. Its probably not actually the same clothing.

I can appear to be wearing the same shirt and pants for weeks on end, but I assure you, its not the same exact shirt and pants every day. I just buy my clothes in bulk! I find a shirt I like? I buy 10 of them.




However if he's using the restrooms to bath and also is stinking severely, then yes that is a problem.

[Geek King]

Regarding the guy who died after 40 hours of WoW -- if I remember correctly he was a goldfarmer rather than an addict. He worked for someone who illegally sells game currency.

Forty hours seems an awful short amount of time, unless there were other, underlying medical issues. Forty hours straight isn't even enough time to suffer sleep deprivation hallucinations. Hell, I've been awake 50 hours before with no issues other than mass caffine infusions.

If he hadn't been drinking AT ALL in that time, he might be close to dehydration, but even gold farming operations treat their people better than that. Dead employees don't produce, after all. Either the time has been drastically shortened, he was already in an unhealthy state and happened to die playing WoW, or we've another urban myth running loose.

[bean]

Wearing the same sort of clothes shouldn't be a problem. Its probably not actually the same clothing.

However if he's using the restrooms to bath and also is stinking severely, then yes that is a problem.

Well, he must own several pairs of identical shoes held together with tape, and several pairs of jeans with the same holes. :P

[Exaspera]

Is he still coming in? After all of this time?

[MoonCat]

To me this sounds like the kid has a psychological addiction to playing. I can see spending hours online, I've done that, but not literally all day, every day. Even if he waiting for the dorms to open, it sounds like he has no other interests. If he can pay for the game account but he's buying almost no food, and has nowhere else to live, he's spending whatever money he has on gaming. How is he paying for gas for the car, I wonder?

Doesn't sound healthy, but I'm not sure how much you can do about it. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask whatever local mental health org operates in your area, maybe they could at least check it out, if he's under age.

[Pairou]

I'd try and talk to him, offer him the clothes and mention a gift card without saying you're paying for it (say you got it as a gift and don't need it, or so on), and try and see what's up. Poor kid... Sounds like a runaway to me.