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Weekends.
In fast food hell, there are no weekends. There are only short, chaotic bouts of madness presented to you by screaming, wailing, neurotic customers constantly marching past your counter, or rolling past the drive through window. See enough of them, and you will succumb to the madness yourself.
At least, this was the reason i gave myself for the knife fight in our lobby that had occurred the weekend before, involving one of our employees and an obvious ghetto inhabitant. To be fair, if someone had called my mother that, I probably would have gotten as well. But hey, at least he didn't pull a gun, and the police responded quickly enough. Plus, the employee was fired, so chances of it happening again were slim.
Still, in an effort to ensure that everyone continued to play nice (customers and employees alike), our managers and owners did what every other business does in Louisiana when they want to keep the peace:
They payed an off duty cop to sit in the store, in full uniform.
Yes, gun and all.
Now, this was his first night in, and it was not an officer I had seen before. I was fairly certain that I would have remembered someone who made me, a 6 foot 1 inch tall guy actually lean my head back a little to look up at. I was certain that no one would mess with him as he sat at the counter/bar area.
Of course, i was wrong.
Most teens had the brains to walk in the door, see the officer, order, and then all but run like hell out of the store. The few that DID stay, were very quiet.
Except one group.
They came inside to order their food. While they worked on scrounging enough money together to actually PAY for their food, they took turns hitting on the girl working at the front counter. When that failed, they began demanding everyone hurry up and make their food. The entire time they were waiting on their food, I could hear them laughing and saw them trying to be sly and point at the officer, who just sat back and said nothing.
Finally, they go off and sit in one of the back corners, only to get louder and more obnoxious as time goes on.
As things slowed down, i went to walk up to the officer and actually talk to him, when I noticed he was turned towards the obnoxious group.
He had his finger up, as if he appeared to be counting.
Before i could ask, I heard one of the teens/twenty somthing's shout:
"Yo, dawg, whatchya doin???"
Police officer ignores them.
Obnoxious's Leader:
"Why you be point'n at us???"
Police officer:
"I'm not pointing, I'm counting."
Obnoxious guy from back of group:
"Whats'da matter, you 'fraid you outnumbered?"
Police officer:
"Nope."
At which point, our friend the police officer pulls the hand he had near his belt, and sets it on the counter. As he opens it, he lays a bullet on the counter, standing straight up.
He does it again for each member of the group.
As he does so, I see each members face:
After pulling their jaws off the floor, and deciding that lead beats stupidity, they quickly decided to leave.
Now, it could have been my imagination, or the fact that I left the fast food business a few months after that, but I could swear that we never had many problems with teenagers again after that.
In fast food hell, there are no weekends. There are only short, chaotic bouts of madness presented to you by screaming, wailing, neurotic customers constantly marching past your counter, or rolling past the drive through window. See enough of them, and you will succumb to the madness yourself.
At least, this was the reason i gave myself for the knife fight in our lobby that had occurred the weekend before, involving one of our employees and an obvious ghetto inhabitant. To be fair, if someone had called my mother that, I probably would have gotten as well. But hey, at least he didn't pull a gun, and the police responded quickly enough. Plus, the employee was fired, so chances of it happening again were slim.
Still, in an effort to ensure that everyone continued to play nice (customers and employees alike), our managers and owners did what every other business does in Louisiana when they want to keep the peace:
They payed an off duty cop to sit in the store, in full uniform.
Yes, gun and all.
Now, this was his first night in, and it was not an officer I had seen before. I was fairly certain that I would have remembered someone who made me, a 6 foot 1 inch tall guy actually lean my head back a little to look up at. I was certain that no one would mess with him as he sat at the counter/bar area.
Of course, i was wrong.
Most teens had the brains to walk in the door, see the officer, order, and then all but run like hell out of the store. The few that DID stay, were very quiet.
Except one group.
They came inside to order their food. While they worked on scrounging enough money together to actually PAY for their food, they took turns hitting on the girl working at the front counter. When that failed, they began demanding everyone hurry up and make their food. The entire time they were waiting on their food, I could hear them laughing and saw them trying to be sly and point at the officer, who just sat back and said nothing.
Finally, they go off and sit in one of the back corners, only to get louder and more obnoxious as time goes on.
As things slowed down, i went to walk up to the officer and actually talk to him, when I noticed he was turned towards the obnoxious group.
He had his finger up, as if he appeared to be counting.
Before i could ask, I heard one of the teens/twenty somthing's shout:
"Yo, dawg, whatchya doin???"
Police officer ignores them.
Obnoxious's Leader:
"Why you be point'n at us???"
Police officer:
"I'm not pointing, I'm counting."
Obnoxious guy from back of group:
"Whats'da matter, you 'fraid you outnumbered?"
Police officer:
"Nope."
At which point, our friend the police officer pulls the hand he had near his belt, and sets it on the counter. As he opens it, he lays a bullet on the counter, standing straight up.
He does it again for each member of the group.
As he does so, I see each members face:
After pulling their jaws off the floor, and deciding that lead beats stupidity, they quickly decided to leave.
Now, it could have been my imagination, or the fact that I left the fast food business a few months after that, but I could swear that we never had many problems with teenagers again after that.
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