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A few weeks ago, I was working the 3:30-midnight self-checkout shift at the Store. It's a fairly easy shift to handle - mostly you just sit at the podium, watch the monitors to make sure nobody is trying to steal stuff, and help people out when they can't figure out complicated words they've never seen before, like "quantity" or "bag". After the front end supervisor left at 9, I was supervising the front as well. It was a Sunday evening, a school night, and so the last few hours were pretty much dead time where I was trying to busy myself with front end cleanup and other odds and ends while keeping an eye on the few people using the kiosks.
Around 10:30, the cart clerk, whose shift ended a little while ago but is still in uniform, walks up to me and tells me that a customer just told him there's a naked man in the men's room rolling around on the floor and screaming about bugs.
What fresh hell is this? Is this the gay-lib orgy I was warned about a few weeks ago? I hit the button on my walkie-talkie and ask the grocery floor supervisor to take a look in the men's room and see what, if anything, is going on.
A minute or so later, he radios me back and verifies what the cart clerk said - there's a middle-aged African-American man on the floor in the men's room, naked, with his clothes strewn about, yelling about being covered in bugs, and isn't responding when being talked to. The floor supervisor subsequently says he doesn't get paid enough to deal with this and walks out of the bathroom and back to his work. (I can't say I blame him.)
I jog over to the customer service counter and call 911 to apprise them of the situation. They ask me if he's armed, to which I readily answer no. (The last thing I need is for the cops to shoot someone in the Store while I'm nominally in charge.) As I'm talking to dispatch, I see him walk out of the bathroom partially dressed while putting his clothes back on, and I'm able to give them a better description.
Mr. Wayne (our security staff) are already gone for the night and I'm not authorized to physically detain anyone, so after dispatch lets me off the line, I trail him through the store and attempt to tell him I am verbally trespassing him (which I have the authority to do) and he needs to leave because the police are on the way. He largely ignores me and mumbles about "I didn't do anything" in between trying to ask customers for money and then grabbing a package of bug spray off the shelf. He walks up to the only cashier who's open and attempts to buy it, but he doesn't have enough money, so he tosses it on the belt and walks out.
I follow him outside to make sure he's leaving the property. As he's vanishing into the evening fog, two sheriff's deputies pull up in cars and I point him out to them. They proceed after him. It's foggy so I couldn't see what transpired, but shortly after stopping near him they turn on their lights and I assume they took him into custody.
When I finally made it back to self-checkout, I discovered that someone had rung up their groceries and then walked out without paying while I was away.
Fortunately, my boss was understanding when I explained to him the next day what had happened and I didn't get in any trouble for the walkout.
Flash forward to this past Sunday. Veteran's Day. On this day, I'm the front end supervisor, and it's an insanely busy day - a holiday, we're giving out free donuts to veterans, it's game day for the Local Sports Team, people are starting to buy food for Thanksgiving, and we've got a deal where you get your turkey for free if you spend a certain amount, so we're jammed to the rafters. I'm attempting to do some cleanup near the entrance when the cart clerk - the same one who was working on that night a month or so ago - walks up to me and tells me the naked crazy guy just walked back into the store.
He points to the man. I immediately recognize him as he walks along the front end and towards the men's room.
Mr. Wayne is busy dealing with a shoplifter at the moment, but the Store Manager and Assistant Manager are both here, so I page them for help. They come up with me just as the man is rummaging through the trash can by the men's room door and tell him, in no uncertain terms, to get the hell out. We walk him to the front door and I part ways with them as they're escorting him off the property.
Because it was insanely busy, it was a couple of hours later before I bumped into AM and thanked him for the assist, and that's when he delivered the coda to the story. After they walked him off the property, he and SM had gone to the Waynecave and used the parking lot cameras to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't wander back in. He meandered about the edge of the parking lot and the adjacent sidewalk for a few minutes before he made his way to the shelter at the bus stop - and stripped naked and started rolling around on the ground.
They called the cops and he was arrested a second time.
I can't pretend to understand the minds of people who are mentally ill or addicted to mind-altering substances, and I hope this guy gets the help he so very obviously needs. I just can't fathom what specific mania one would have that compels them to repeatedly go to the same public business and strip. Nobody gets paid enough to deal with that.
Around 10:30, the cart clerk, whose shift ended a little while ago but is still in uniform, walks up to me and tells me that a customer just told him there's a naked man in the men's room rolling around on the floor and screaming about bugs.
What fresh hell is this? Is this the gay-lib orgy I was warned about a few weeks ago? I hit the button on my walkie-talkie and ask the grocery floor supervisor to take a look in the men's room and see what, if anything, is going on.
A minute or so later, he radios me back and verifies what the cart clerk said - there's a middle-aged African-American man on the floor in the men's room, naked, with his clothes strewn about, yelling about being covered in bugs, and isn't responding when being talked to. The floor supervisor subsequently says he doesn't get paid enough to deal with this and walks out of the bathroom and back to his work. (I can't say I blame him.)
I jog over to the customer service counter and call 911 to apprise them of the situation. They ask me if he's armed, to which I readily answer no. (The last thing I need is for the cops to shoot someone in the Store while I'm nominally in charge.) As I'm talking to dispatch, I see him walk out of the bathroom partially dressed while putting his clothes back on, and I'm able to give them a better description.
Mr. Wayne (our security staff) are already gone for the night and I'm not authorized to physically detain anyone, so after dispatch lets me off the line, I trail him through the store and attempt to tell him I am verbally trespassing him (which I have the authority to do) and he needs to leave because the police are on the way. He largely ignores me and mumbles about "I didn't do anything" in between trying to ask customers for money and then grabbing a package of bug spray off the shelf. He walks up to the only cashier who's open and attempts to buy it, but he doesn't have enough money, so he tosses it on the belt and walks out.
I follow him outside to make sure he's leaving the property. As he's vanishing into the evening fog, two sheriff's deputies pull up in cars and I point him out to them. They proceed after him. It's foggy so I couldn't see what transpired, but shortly after stopping near him they turn on their lights and I assume they took him into custody.
When I finally made it back to self-checkout, I discovered that someone had rung up their groceries and then walked out without paying while I was away.
Fortunately, my boss was understanding when I explained to him the next day what had happened and I didn't get in any trouble for the walkout.Flash forward to this past Sunday. Veteran's Day. On this day, I'm the front end supervisor, and it's an insanely busy day - a holiday, we're giving out free donuts to veterans, it's game day for the Local Sports Team, people are starting to buy food for Thanksgiving, and we've got a deal where you get your turkey for free if you spend a certain amount, so we're jammed to the rafters. I'm attempting to do some cleanup near the entrance when the cart clerk - the same one who was working on that night a month or so ago - walks up to me and tells me the naked crazy guy just walked back into the store.
He points to the man. I immediately recognize him as he walks along the front end and towards the men's room.
Mr. Wayne is busy dealing with a shoplifter at the moment, but the Store Manager and Assistant Manager are both here, so I page them for help. They come up with me just as the man is rummaging through the trash can by the men's room door and tell him, in no uncertain terms, to get the hell out. We walk him to the front door and I part ways with them as they're escorting him off the property.
Because it was insanely busy, it was a couple of hours later before I bumped into AM and thanked him for the assist, and that's when he delivered the coda to the story. After they walked him off the property, he and SM had gone to the Waynecave and used the parking lot cameras to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't wander back in. He meandered about the edge of the parking lot and the adjacent sidewalk for a few minutes before he made his way to the shelter at the bus stop - and stripped naked and started rolling around on the ground.
They called the cops and he was arrested a second time.
I can't pretend to understand the minds of people who are mentally ill or addicted to mind-altering substances, and I hope this guy gets the help he so very obviously needs. I just can't fathom what specific mania one would have that compels them to repeatedly go to the same public business and strip. Nobody gets paid enough to deal with that.
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