Public Address systems and the fun they cause.

[Starlord]

PA systems and CB radios

At one time, I served on the Wayne Township (Ind) Crime Patrol. We patrolled and used our CB radios to alert our dispatcher to suspicious activities, and they would relay this info to the Marion County Sheriff's Dept. One night, I was on patrol, and pulled into a little store in our patrol area so my partner could buy some smokes. While he was inside, I was called on the radio to meet another unit to help check something out. My partner came flying out of the store with a wild look on his face. It seems the radio was broadcasting over the PA system in the store, and every word I had said had resounded through the store. We posted a note in dispatch about this problem.

[Broomjockey]

We had a PA system put in for the box office area in my first theatre. Not sure why they bothered, because you didn't need to use it on slow nights, and on busy nights, no one could tell what it said because they couldn't hear it over the general cacophony. It was much more fun to silence the entire lobby of 500+ people by shouting (in a very clear voice) "Excuse me can I have your attention please. Every show you wanted to see is sold out for the rest of the night." (Okay, that's not what we actually said, but that was the general gist of it.)

[Dragon_Dreamer]

We got a lot of strange looks the day one of the pharmacy techs got on the PA with, "Attention managers. The pharmacy is now high."

... They of course meant cash high, but it was still funny to see several customers stop dead in their tracks.

Another time, two guys in their early 20s came by an hour before close, grabbed one of the toy balls from a display, and began tossing it back and forth over the aisles. My manager, who was in the office and could see them, got on the PA and said, "Gentlemen, if you break it, you bought it."

They couldn't figure out where the announcement had come from til they asked me at the register.