They call him Trevor the Racist...

[Lil Bunny]

Sweet! Is it bright pink?

Heh I was just about to ask that but kept reading (thank goodness!). I'm from the long hair shocking raspberry club here. Welcome to the board!!!!!

[XCashier]

P.S - WhSmith's IS SHIT.

CS member WHShit would surely agree with you.

Punch to the Adam's apple, punch to the sternum, chop to the collarbone, over the neck headlock, fall back into a brainbuster.

Ooh! Ooh! I wanna watch!

All kidding aside, I hope Trevor gets banned soon, if not arrested. Assaulting store staff should earn him a nice long stay at the Graybar Hotel.

[gunsage]

I just can't believe he'd honestly think it's okay to touch someone's hair. A lot of people don't think about it like that in concerns to a pony tail. However, what it really comes down to is...

1) It's not a leash.
2) It's your ****ing hair!

That's about it. Granted, I don't typically let my hair get long (it has a tendency to do this crappy curly...thing...in the back), but if I ever made an attempt to grow it long and I pony-tailed it, you can put money on that combination or something much worse happening to someone I DON'T KNOW touching it for any reason.

[Lady Heather]

Send out the Angry Mob!!

If he touches you tell him to back off!! If there are other customers even better. You do not grab females in public against there will. There is nothing like a female screaming "NO! STOP! GET AWAY FROM ME! HELP!". Now you have witnesses that see: A female yelling for help, and the creepy guy that scared her. Nothing like an angry mob to scare the crap out of a creep. If (and I hope not) he does anything else you have witnesses.
My friend did this with a jerk that kept getting behind her and grabing her. Her yelling made him jump back. Everyone in the store staring at them. An older lady asked if she was ok. When my friend said no, a very large gentelman told the perv to leave. Now. Both of them gave statements to the cops and helped ID him. Perv was never heard from again.

[piratemonkey]

Incidentally, I work with WHShit. She implored me to come post here, and lo and behold!

Technically, we don't have a loitering policy, but it was generally agreed that I was right to kick him out as he was damaging stock and making a mess. He creeps in from time to time but runs off as soon as he sees me. It's quite funny.

(as for the hair...it's a reddish-pink, more of a magenta right now. Hurrah for pink haired folk!)

[yomiko]

... with a copy of the Sun or Sunday Sport (For non UKers, "newspapers" full of tits. As in, 70+ tits.)))

I don't know why, but I first read this as 70-year-old+ tits and not 70+ pairs. And I shuddered. I just felt the need to share the image. You're welcome.

Back on topic, best of luck on getting rid of Trevor. Sounds like it's only a matter of time though. And I highly recommend pressing charges next time (ideally there won't be a next time, but realistically...)

[Becks]

"Free" language lessons?

I, for one, am interested.

[Jester]

...he likes to intimidate staff.

A former colleague of mine used to hide whenever he would come into the shop because, more than once, he cornered her and demanded a kiss.

He walked right up behind me, grabbed my ponytail and pulled my head right back. Then, after I politely asked him NOT to touch me, he started to rant about how my hair was a stupid colour, and how I was an idiot to have dyed it that colour (it's pink, by the way)

Trevor is a bully. And a coward. And there are a couple of ways I'd like to suggest dealing with him.

First you need to know something about me. I am not physically intimidating. To anyone. I am a whopping 5'8", about 150 lbs, and thin. I also happen to look either half-asleep or somewhat stoned all the time. (My avatar is a pretty good cartoon likeness of me, actually...other than the body shape!) As several people on this board know, however, I not only don't take shit, I have scared the living bejeesus out of many guys larger than me. It's all in how you approach the situation.

First of all, I reiterate....Trevor is a bully. Thus, being polite or cowering from him only feed his ego. As a bully, however, he is a coward. So you need to show him strength and conviction. I have two suggestions. Which one you choose will depend on your personal psychological makeup, your management, and the amount of security cameras in your shop.

The first one is very simple and very effective. The next time he approaches you or one of your coworkers and either attempts to intimidate you or touches you in any inappropriate way, you walk right up to him, face to face, with your stronger hand reach between his legs, grab his scrotum HARD and hold on FIRMLY, use your other hand to grab his face and force him to look at you, look him directly in the eye, and say in a very clear, firm, calm, quiet voice, "Trevor, if you ever do anything like that again, you will be singing soprano for the rest of your life." If you prefer, you can say "if you ever come in here again" instead. Whichever works for you. But trust me, there is no better way to get a man's attention than to grab his jewels, and if you deliver your line calmly and firmly and with conviction, he WILL believe you.

My second suggestion is similar, but does not involve physical contact. When he pulls his next stunt, walk up to him, stand directly in front of him, look him in the eye, and (once again) calmly, firmly, and with conviction say, "Trevor, if you ever do anything like that again/come into this store again, the police will never find any trace of your body." Or, "you'll be eating through a tube for the rest of your life." Or, "you'll have to learn how to shave with your LEFT hand." Or, "you'll pull back a bloody stump." Or, "I'll remove your hand from your arm."

Etc., etc., etc. You get the idea. The details are up to you. The important things are that 1. you are calm, 2. you are firm, 3. you are concise and to the point, 4. you show conviction, 5. he SEES the conviction and has no doubt that you will follow through on your promise. Of course, it helps if YOU believe that you will follow through on your promise.

It is past time being polite to this rusty fucktrombone. Yes, if you can go through legal channels, do so. But the cops may take their time. Or they may not give it much attention. I don't know the cops in your area, so I can't say. But if they do not act quickly and firmly, you are going to be left to your own devices.

It's time to stop hiding from him and stare him down. He's a bully. He's a coward. Show him strength and he will flee.

Alternatively, I've been meaning to visit my sister in the UK. Buy me a plane ticket, and I'LL deal with that assmonkey for you. But all in all, it's probably best if you take care of him yourselves.

[crazylegs]

I don't know the cops in your area, so I can't say. But if they do not act quickly and firmly, you are going to be left to your own devices.

There are a number of avenues available. If you have witnesses (although this does depend on how long ago it was) you can still create an incident (i.e. phone the police) and have him arrested for assault. If you have told him not to come in and he still does and he makes a point of contacting you and you've asked him not to you can ask the police to issue an Harrasment Order which makes it an arrestable offence if he contacts you (much easier to obtain than an injunction and they will be logged within the local constabularys intel system, which makes effecting the arrest much easier).

This is of course in addition to him being banned from the store, and quite frankly you shouldn't have to be writing statements to do this. I would suggest that you approach management and remind them of their responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act (Amended) with regards to reducing stress in the workplace.

Oh Jester, having seen the abysmal standard of CCTV in most WHS stores, I can honestly say they are worse than useless.

Good luck in getting rid of this bastard.

[gunsage]

He creeps in from time to time but runs off as soon as he sees me.

That sounds more like a stalker. Unlikely, but that statement alone seems to speak volumes. The funny part about this guy liking to intimidate your staff is that he's doing it just because he can. He's nothing but a crabby old man. You have rights, so he does he, but clearly he's overstepped his boundaries on many an occassion. I fully support the violent way out, but clearly that's not the high road.

Witnesses, witness statements, regular documentation, and finally police collision will eventually rectify the situation. It's the eventually part that's annoying. When I worked at this one bus station doing security, we'd have "regulars" we'd often have to chase out. How could you possibly have regulars at a bus station (keeping in mind that by bus station I'm referring to busses that go state to state)? Very simple...

Regulars = vagrants, lowlifes, bums, scammers, and overall scum.

Yes, there were a number of them I felt sorry for...initially. The problem with a lot of these guys is that they were very disruptive and often violent with paying customers. In any case, I recall only ONE TIME the entire three months I worked there (only three because I wanted to get the hell out) that one was actually arrested. Here's why...

1) The terminal manager, i.e. the person in charge, would not file a threats and intimidation report, regardless of what happened to us or their staff.
2) The bums knew the system well enough that they typically stayed out of sight. Even when you spotted them, they were either on their way out, or knew when they'd been spotted.
3) Whether the bums were combative or not didn't matter. The police often could not get there, DESPITE THE FACT THAT THIS WAS DOWNTOWN, until 15 - 20 minutes after the fact.
4) The police were more than willing to take statements from us, but couldn't do anything unless the person in charge (again, terminal manager) was willing to file individual threats and intimidation reports on them.

The only reason this guy got busted is that he was stupid enough to stay on the property after we called the police. Most of the time, they'll take their time, but still book. Not this guy. I'm not sure if he was trying to make a statement or not. Most likely, he was, well... See, there've even been situations where they did stick around at which point the following exchange would occur...

Police Officer: "How are we doing tonight?"
Bum: "Eh, I'm okay."
PO: "You do realize this is private property, correct?"
BM: "Yezzir."
PO: "Are you going to leave the premises?"
BM: "Yezzir."

And off he goes. It doesn't matter what he did, provided it wasn't assault or something. If he agrees to leave the property and the terminal manager is not willing to press charges, it's over. A fellow security officer was carrying a KNIFE around because previously he got the **** beat out of him by a bum. I attempted to explain that that wouldn't fly in a situation where one came at him unarmed, just like the former experience, but he refused to listen.

In any case, the only thing that saves you in most situations is backup. Naturally, that consists of what everyone has already said...documentation, statements, etc. It'll work out, but it may take time.

[piratemonkey]

As far as I know, we don't even have a security camera. Good ol' cheap WhSmith's!

If I didn't think it would get me sacked, I would not hesitate to follow your advice Jester. In fact, there's very little I would enjoy more. At the very least my boss is understanding and co-operative about the manner and is working with the centre's security to ensure he remains banned (he is also banned from a few other shops around here for reasons unknown to me) although it stands to reason that, should he approach me outside of work, I won't hesitate to stand my ground. (alternatively, I have a temperamental Sicilian fiance who probably do the work for me)
I've got a couple of witnesses to the incident so that stands in the favour of getting a ban, although I'm not sure why he wasn't banned sooner given his behaviour to my former co-worker (I do have a colleague who seems to think he's actually a nice guy despite knowing about the hair-pulling and harrassment....)

[Jester]

There are a number of avenues available.

you can ask the police to issue an Harrasment Order which makes it an arrestable offence if he contacts you (much easier to obtain than an injunction and they will be logged within the local constabularys intel system, which makes effecting the arrest much easier).

I would suggest that you approach management and remind them of their responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act (Amended)...

I could be wrong, but a lot of what you say sounds like it is based on the U.S. legal system. Unfortunately, I do believe the OP is in the U.K. As such, their laws might be different.

The same ideas apply, of course, but the OP may not have the same legal options we do here in the States. Even if they do, of course, a lot depends on how the police in the OP's area are. Just like with any profession, there are good police and bad police.

While I do support pursuing the situation within the legal framework of the OP's area, I still stand by my suggestions for ridding the store of this nuisance. Bullies and cowards are far more intimidated by people standing up to them than some abstract legal document telling them to stay away. At least, that's been my experience.

[TechSuperGirl]

A Cheap Bigot, what a Combo

He's very lucky he grabbed and yanked your hair. I know people who would have beat the living sh*t outta him, and would not have given a damn, he if did that to them!

[Broomjockey]

I could be wrong, but a lot of what you say sounds like it is based on the U.S. legal system. Unfortunately, I do believe the OP is in the U.K. As such, their laws might be different.

I do believe crazylegs is from the U.K., and is/was an enforcement officer, so it's accurate.

[crazylegs]

I could be wrong, but a lot of what you say sounds like it is based on the U.S. legal system. Unfortunately, I do believe the OP is in the U.K. As such, their laws might be different.

The same ideas apply, of course, but the OP may not have the same legal options we do here in the States. Even if they do, of course, a lot depends on how the police in the OP's area are. Just like with any profession, there are good police and bad police.

I work within the British Legal System. (Ihave mentioned it one or two times before )