When Customers...ATTACK!

[Liselotte]

Two posts in one night! You can tell I'm new and I'm excited! Hee! This is back in my first retail job...I have a few good stories from those days but I'll save those for another day!

So it was the run up to Christmas...always a fun time in any job, and I was an innocent 17 year old just working the tills. My colleague was on the other till and we had a long line of people waiting to pay for Christmas goodies. He was dealing with two dear old ladies who are asking about a certain jumper ("Oh my husband would love it!") that another branch might have when a surly looking lady stomps up to my register, her poor son, about ten years old, in tow...

Moi: Bonjour!
Surly Woman: SW.

M: "Hi there..."
SW: "Those two *jabs at two old dears* ....pushed in front of me!"
M: "Oh no...I'm really sorry about that...it's really busy, sorry! I didn't realise...it's always busy round this time of year..."
SW: "Well it's ridiculous! If they wanted the jumper from wherever it is that has them, then they should have gone there...!"

I agreed with her and apologised and I even complimented her on her t-shirt. I thought I had soothed the savage beast until....as she was leaving...

M: "Have a good day...and don't let anything like that let you down." *smile*
SW:"Yeah thanks..."

then she BARGED (using her shoulder and one of her shopping bags) quite into and half onto the counter as she hurried out of the shop.

Me and Co-Worker: zomg.

Old Lady: "That is assault! THAT IS ASSAULT! Someone call a security guard!"

Co-worker, who was a rather burly young man, hurried after her. I was shaking as these two old ladies started talking about assault ("I could have gone flying!") and charges ("ASSAULT!") and court ("Call the police!") oh my! At this point I started to panic. Did I say something to provoke her into attacking slightly ignorant but innocent old people?! OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod!!

She eventually was brought back to the shop with her poor young son trailing behind looking utterly ashamed, and I couldn't blame him after his Mother's behaviour! They took her into the head office with the women for questioning. Police arrived soon after. All this over a jumper and a misunderstanding?!

I was told afterwards that if things had gone bad, I might have had to be used as a witness...thankfully it never went that far and to this day I don't entirely know about what went on after the incident. Still...one of the scariest moments EVER at work. Anyone else witnessed Christmas or general madness that ended in violence?

[GingerBiscuit]

Christmas is HORRIBLE where we are. Understandably, as is common in a lot of shops, we have no holiday in december.

While I've never seen violence where I am, I've been in a situation I was certain the woman was going to slap me. She pushed in front of the lady I was serving SCREAMING at me
EXPLAIN THIS BILL! I WANT YOU TO EXPLAIN THIS BILL! NOW!

Me: First christma on the job, just 19.
Her: B***h from h**l.

Me:I... I'm sorry, let me just finish serving this lady then I'll be right with you...
Her: NO NOW! NOW!
Me: I... *see's no managers* Ok, what's wrong with the bill?
Her: I'VE BEEN CHARGED THE WRONG PRICE!
Me: Cab I see it?
Her: COME AND LOOK AT THE SHELF TAGS?
Me: Ok.
Her: SEE, LOOK! 99P! THEIR MENAT TO BE 99P!
Me: *looking at receipt*... That's the small almonds. You have large pistachios. See? They must have been in the wrong place.
Her: Well, explain this bit to me, then!
(she had two packets of the nuts in question, and when we put things through at the same time it comes up with the initial price and then the multiple price next to it)
Me: Did you have two? Can I see?
Her: Yes I had two!
Me: Well, that's where it comes up on the receipt. Multiples get put on the same line.

She draws her self up to her full height, fury blazing. I'm cold all over and shaking, she's had that body language that means violence the whole way through, and I honestly think she's going to hit me.

But she doesn't. Somehow logic sunk through into her brain, and she realised that hitting a skinny 19 year old over a bill that was actually correct might get her in trouble and stalked off.

[BookstoreEscapee]

i love people who scream over their receipt and it turns out to be right and they just can't read...

i've been lucky enough to have never witnessed actual violence...thieves, perverts, yes. violence, no (though my ex had a minor stabbing incident outside his store once...)

[Plaidman]

I work at a convience store at night. I've had too much violence. Enough not to share, least I get a warning or worst

[SpyOne]

Anyone else witnessed Christmas or general madness that ended in violence?

This story isn't mine, but it belongs here.

A friend of mine used to work as an LPN in a group home for "the formerly institutionalized mentally retarded." These are guys who aren't too dumb to live in society, with a little help, but in less enlightened times we simply sent folks like that to the loony bin. These guys had picked up some behavioral problems during their time in the loony bin, but the goal was to re-aclimatize them to life in society by helping them (with supervision) to do things "normal" people do.
Like go Christmas shopping.

Now, in the loony bin, the staff was not allowed to hit the patients, so they would train some of the patients to hit the other patients when they act up.

So, my friend is Christmas shopping with a middle-aged, muscular, 6-foot-plus black man who has been trained to hit people when they misbehave.


So, as they stoor in a crowded, cramped toy store, a tiny elderly woman keeps bumping him with her cart, basicly going "tap-tap-tap" into his back. And the big guy snaps.
My friend said he saw his life flash before his eyes: it ended with him helping the police fill out a coroner's report for that little old lady, and he couldn't think of any way to stop the events that had now been set into motion.
The big guy grabbed up two handfulls of the lady's shopping cart, and gave it a brief violent shake, then said, "HEY! Say, 'Excuse me!"

And then they went for ice cream, to celebrate the big guy not hitting anybody.
"Sorry about that: that was my fault. I should have realized you were getting stressed, and we should have left before that. My bad, you did good."

[allniter]

Old Lady: "That is assault! THAT IS ASSAULT! Someone call a security guard!"

Co-worker, who was a rather burly young man, hurried after her. I was shaking as these two old ladies started talking about assault ("I could have gone flying!") and charges ("ASSAULT!") and court ("Call the police!") oh my!

Know what?! This lady had more balls than a lot of the people who post on this site. Some people here are such hippies they think that anything more than speaking above a whisper to an SC is demeaning to their self-image.

Bravo woman, push that charge as far as that trailer trash, fat-ass woman can fit it up there.

[Daphne]

We had a patron riot in my library about two weeks ago. About 10-15 people were involved in a brawl in the lobby. I, thankfully, was not working that night.

[CancelMyService]

A riot in a library might be the most bizarre thing I've ever heard of.

[UncleImpy]

Well, at least, with a riot in a library, it'll be easy for the police to 'book' em all

Edit: Really, I AM ashamed of this, but I just couldnt stop myself!

[aeternitas]

There was one day, working at the grocery store just down the road from our house, that our phone lines went out. The end result of this being, we could not accept credit or debit cards or checks (the company were nazis when it came to checks, one bad check and anything you wrote was blacklisted, but that's beside the point).

The lines started getting backed up as people were scrambling to nearby ATMs to get cash and such to make their purchases (it was Saturday or Sunday afternoon, probably Sunday) and get the hell out, and through my line comes this woman who was very upset that we couldn't accept a check at the time.

Being the good checker I was I explained the situation over her outbursts of 'Well *I* am a regular!' and 'This is absurd, I've never written a bad check!', and she finally decides she wants to unload her cart. At me. The first item was a box of donuts, which caught me right in the solar plexus and scared the hell out of me, and the next item would have been a 24-pack of diet soda, if she'd had the upper body strength to get it past the belt. The MOD came over and told her to either get the hell out or pay cash.


On another occasion, working a late night, a couple of younger kids decided they were entitled to a 5-finger discount, and neglected to avoid the cameras. One of the kids got away, the other unlucky kid ended up pinned down by a register by the same MOD, screaming at the top of his lungs...I think we lost a few customers that night.

[Sir Spaniard the 12th]

I too am confused by a riot in a library. Seems the least likely place for such a thing.
Do you know what set it off, Daphne?

[Canarr]

A riot in a library might be the most bizarre thing I've ever heard of.

SAVE A TREE - BURN A BOOK!
SAVE A TREE - BURN A BOOK!
SAVE A TREE - BURN A BOOK!
SAVE A TREE - BURN A BOOK!

[AnqeiicDemise]

I was working at a Little Caesar's in the local K-mart -- this is just another reason for my walk out on that job.

I was with one other co-worker working the Thanks Giving holiday and judging by the amount of customers we had, that was just bad judgment on their part. I mean, football games and pizza --- its the PERFECT combo regardless of what holiday.

So this little, five foot two, one hundred pound (more like 90 some) gangster girl shows up and orders two large pizzas, one plain cheese, one pepperoni. Being the good worker I was, I decided to go ahead and make a FRESH pepperoni so it'd come out the same time her cheese did instead of giving her a hot and ready. She thanks me for the thought, I put in her pizza, go about my business.

About eight minutes later, I hear a scream. I rush over to where the pizzas are being handed over and I find out that the SC is just throwing a fit because...

Her pizza has bubbles in it.

I explan that even if I stab the dough to death with a fork, air gets trapped in there and makes bubbles...there is no WAY to make a perfect, flat pizza. (our dough was made fresh every morning.)


Long story short, she throws a fit and decides to JUMP over the sneeze guard to kick my ass because I refuse to give her another pizza without bubbles in it.

AND NO ONE DID ANYTHING ABOUT IT EVEN WHEN MY CO WORKER CALLED SECURITY!

Good thing I grew up with a bunch of boys and knew how to handle my own turf.

[Daphne]

I too am confused by a riot in a library. Seems the least likely place for such a thing.
Do you know what set it off, Daphne?

It was supposedly racially motivated. The guy that was attacked by 10-15 other people ended up with a broken wrist, several broken ribs, and a gash on his head.

When you work in an urban library in a major city, things like that happen all of the time. I've seen patrons get into fist fights over computers. It's insane.