Customers Calling Police for No Real Reason

[ViolaPlayer]

Today we had some id10t spray WD40 into our air intake and so the smell of nastiness wafted throughout the store.

Several customers made comments about the smell and the management team of the store made sure nothing else was going on. (such as a gas leak, motor burnout in the coolers/freezer, etc.)

I completely understand the questions and concerns. But one anonymous person decided that they just had to call the police and fire department.

So we see a cop pull in, walk into the store and start walking back to produce. I page the store director and go talk to the cop. He filled me in on someone calling. The store director explains what happened to the cop as I go out front to meet the expected fire truck.

I hear the siren approaching and then shut off. Fortunately, the cop had managed to radio and stop them before they got to the store and created havoc with the customers. The police presence had already set tongues to wagging as it was!

The cop comes out and we start talking about how silly people are and how they don't listen. He told me how annoyed he gets at people wasting their time with stupid calls and how people don't listen to him either! So I pointed him to CS

And thank you anonymous customer for making what was already a really rough, busy day just that much more challenging. Appreciate it!

[flybye023]

Maybe I'm too paranoid and should be wearing a tin-foil hat but what if it was the person who sprayed the WD-40 who called the cops?

[ViolaPlayer]

You know what's kinda sad? Most of us at work were speculating that. Says something about humanity in general when that's the second thought after "oh f*$%! What now?"

[Bramblerose]

Had I been a customer and saw teh cop, my first thought would have been "Ooo, really dumb thief! Let's see if we can spot Karma winding up for a bitch-slap!"

[Imogene]

When I worked at the craft store, we'd get at least three comments every day of, "I smell a gas leak."
"No, no you don't. We've had the police, we've had the fire department, we've had our gas guy, all come out and try to find a leak, there just isn't one. What you're probably smelling is the gas from the floor cleaner's machines..."
And they'd still argue with me.
"You should tell your boss itr smells like gas in here."
"Yes, I know it does, and so does he. Trust me, we know."
"Well, obviously, you can't smell it, because I smelled it the moment I walked into the store, and got a headache. Must be because you're male."
Bitch!"Ma'am, I CAN smell it, in fact, I do every day I walk n, however, I've never seen any of my coworkers go ballistic about it, so, the general scent of the store drops way down on my list of Shit I should worry about."

[sirwired]

You probably do, in fact, have a gas leak. However, it is in such a small amount, the normal gas leak detectors won't pick it up.

I had a really tiny leak in my gas line in my garage for a couple of days, and the scent, throughout the entire garage, didn't go away for another month.

The substance you smell in natural gas, Butanethiol, is of course added to the gas on purpose. It can be smelled at 10 parts per billion or less. I don't know what concentration they add, but it is surely far more than that 10 ppb.

The nose is far more sensitive than any practical leak detector. Given that a leak detector is meant to find dangerous leaks, they obviously don't work well for a single harmless loose pipe thread somewhere in the entire store.

SirWired

[MoonChild2007]

is WD40 flammable?

[Chromatix]

is WD40 flammable?

Yes. Definitely.

ETA: This is a more legitimate use of it's flammability. Probably shot in Iceland - it's a local favourite technique.

[Darkwish]

Yes. Definitely.

ETA: This is a more legitimate use of it's flammability. Probably shot in Iceland - it's a local favourite technique.

It makes a GREAT flamethrower too!



I'd also love to hear that cop's stories!

[VComps]

Ugh, speaking of smells in stores...

As you may (or may not) know, I work in a drugstore that sells everything. (Except birthday candles. Never could figure that one out.)

Anyway, I walked in the other day after my well-deserved days off to find... the whole store smelled like fish! Seriously, it was like being inside a tackle box.

Turns out that a customer had dropped and broken a bottle of fish oil, the smell of which pervaded the entire store.

(Luckily I have enough seniority that I'm able to write stock items off without being questioned, so I got an air freshener for my department's till area, but every time we walked away... ugh)

[Wembley]

Way back when I was a Shackie, we had a customer arrive in a pickup truck and park in front of our store. Shortly after he came in the store, we started getting the first few whiffs of the unique smell of gasoline (petrol) - and it only got stronger and stronger.

Turns out that the customer had a kerosine container in the bed of his truck, which he had filled with gasoline. After the fire department came and cleaned up the 5 gallons of gas that had ended up all over our parking lot (a very interesting process involving a special soap, and large absorbant pads), the store reeked of gas so bad that I had to open the front door and the back door (and listen to the annoying BEEEEEEEP from the security system) for a while to air the place out.

Karma got him though - apparently its illegal to keep gas (which should be in a RED container) in a (BLUE) kerosine container. He ended up getting a nice fine from the fire department, and I think he had to pay for them to clean up the parking lot too.

-Wembley

[atomicthumbs]

You probably do, in fact, have a gas leak. However, it is in such a small amount, the normal gas leak detectors won't pick it up.

I had a really tiny leak in my gas line in my garage for a couple of days, and the scent, throughout the entire garage, didn't go away for another month.

The substance you smell in natural gas, Butanethiol, is of course added to the gas on purpose. It can be smelled at 10 parts per billion or less. I don't know what concentration they add, but it is surely far more than that 10 ppb.

The nose is far more sensitive than any practical leak detector. Given that a leak detector is meant to find dangerous leaks, they obviously don't work well for a single harmless loose pipe thread somewhere in the entire store.

SirWired

Maybe there's just a mercaptan leak. :P

[LillFilly]

Something happend like that when I worked security in a mall where I used to live. Whenever there was a drop in city water pressure (they were working on the pipes along the road all summer) it would drop the pressure in the sprinkler system and set-off the fire alarm. We saw the code on the alarm panel screen, and knew exactly what it was. It was fairly commonly known by our customers that unless we made an ANNOUNCEMENT saying to evacuate the mall, that it was a false alarm.

However, Security leaves the office to go back into the mall proper and find the food court NEARLY EMPTY! On a Saturday! It was filled before the alarm went-off and we'd only been in the office a minute or two. Some of our friends who work stores near the food court came-up and asked who the firefighter was who evacuated everybody. Our response: "What firefighter? They aren't even here yet!" (They came as a courtesy to reset the alarm panel)

We had a lot of... Interesting characters in the area. One was a middle-aged man with some type of mental disorder. His FATHER is or was a firefighter. This guy loved firefighters. Hence....HE BELIEVE HE WAS A FIREFIGHTER!!!!

From the description they gave us, we figured-out that this guy who believes he's a firefighter marched into our food court as the alarm was sounding and announced to everyone that it was an emergency and to evacuate immediately. We could very nearly have had a panic on our hands since there was no type of crowd-control in place, as we had not planned an evacuation yet. I'd met this guy before an he seems to be in total control of his mental faculties except for the fact he believes he's a firefighter; he wears a firefighter team-like jacket, hat, and would often try to give us 'advice.' I personally was seeing red, as he could have gotten someone seriously hurt.

Needless to say the mall was not happy with this guy, as the mall remained pretty empty and sales suffered for the rest of the day. I think the police and fire department had a talk with the guy and his father (they knew EXACTLY who he was) and we never saw him after.

[vacation_rentals_suck]

I get folks call the cops on us too but for sillier things than that. They call the cops because their bikes didnt get delivered on time, because we wouldnt take keys to them, because we couldnt describe in detail each and every area restaurant.....what a joke

[MoonChild2007]

Yes. Definitely.

ETA: This is a more legitimate use of it's flammability. Probably shot in Iceland - it's a local favourite technique.

So if it was sprayed through the vents, would the odor be strong enough to cause an explosion? Just judging from that video of the kid who blew up wd40, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody called the police. Its no different than having the smell of gas all throughout the store.