failed variety store suicide

[mymaskofsanity]

This story dates back to my early CS days working at variety store.
Good ol' 24 joint? Looks like a kwik e mart? you know the one.......

It's about 10:40pm my shift is about to end at 11pm, it's been a rather uneventful day and I'm ready to pack it in. The night guy shows up a bit early to get a head start on his duties. I'm serving my last line up of 5 or 6 customers pleasantly when one of the craziest things I've ever seen happen, begins to happen.

This woman walks in the door "bing bong", walks robotically up to the front of the line and in front of the customer I'm interacting with.

I was little surprised when I looked at her, her eyes looked as if the were about to explode or at least pop of the sockets, they were that big.

*silence* As I'm trying to comprehend why this woman just cut the whole line and is now standing in front of me not saying a word.

I say "yes?"
To which the woman replies (exact response) "I'm crazy. I'm insane. I just slit my wrist. I need to go to the hospital."

As I'm processing this thought the only thing I can stammer is an "oooook?"

My customers all look confused, as do I, since this particular store I worked at was directly across from a Hospital.

She then slowly starts to peel back the sleeve of her jacket to reveal a bleeding wrist, that drips crimson onto my counter.

The night guy starts to get a little freaked out, asking if shes ok and blah,blah,blah. He begins to administor first aid.

It didn't look all that serious to me, I mean honestly she walked to the store from where ever and managed to speak to me. Why come to me when the hospital is 100 yards away?

Call me insensitive but I just let out a sigh, asked the customers to please put down thier purchases and vacate the store. Meandered over to phone to call 911.
Basically told the dispatcher who wanted to know all the details to just send a cop car a f***ing ambulance and get this looney out of my store.

They showed up, took care of her, and it was 11:01 PM

I just looked at the night guy after it was over and said...

"Well that was f***ed up, Have a good night"

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, if she'd gone to the hospital, she wouldn't have had as good an audience, now would she?

[Lady Wrath]

..."Band Aids are in Aisle Three!"

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Down the road or across the street?

[rerant]

As insensitive a human being as I normally am, this could have been (as most attempted suicides are) a desperate cry for help and attention. She likely went to your store first because had she just gone to the hospital there would have been no one to ask her if she was OK; they'd just get to mending her wounds.
People like that often need to feel as though someone still cares enough about their life to ask them if they're alright.

[mymaskofsanity]

..."Band Aids are in Aisle Three!"

HAHAHAHA!

Wow how I wish I was wittier and said that...

Damn

I seriously just cackled for 5 minutes in my store shouting band aids ! bwhahaha
Aisle 3 ! Bwhahaha

[crazylegs]

to be honest a dripping wound is not serious, people slitting their wrists rarely do it right (no I'm not going to tell you how its done) if it was *Gushing* then you have a problem. As has been said before, it was a cry for attention.

[digilight]

In your best Grocery Store PA Voice *"Clean up at register 1"*

And yeah Crazylegs I know exactly what you mean how its done.

[Ill_Used_Heroine]

Oh man, you beat me to it!

Actually, I was going to say, "Cubby! Clean up at Register 1!"

[Andara Bledin]

Well, if she'd gone to the hospital, she wouldn't have had as good an audience, now would she?

*nods* Yup. It was a cry for attention.

Down the road or across the street?

That is just not right.

Funny in a disturbed way, but still not right.

^-.-^

[GingerBiscuit]

Still, if someone is THAT desperate for attention, they need help anyway.

But of course the way they go about it just leads to exasperation and disgust.

If they'd done it in our store, they'd have got a reaction- my manager fainting. He hates body fluids. ALL body fluids. When I threw up on the shop floor last year he made me clean it up because there was no-one else around and it would have made him faint.