while working in the gas station we wore alarms on third shift-they were about the size and shape of a garage door opener, with a plastic shield to keep the button from being accidentally pressed. We also found out they contained a mercury switch that activated if you moved like you were being attacked, or had fallen.
How did we find this out?
it seems one night during shift change whilst maneuvering amongst the second shift workers and their registers/drop safes I moved in a strange manner(ducking and bending sideways)-there happened to be an officer in the store doing paperwork(we let them use the unused counter in video-known to dispatch as the "video annex office"). He comes up to the counter and says dispatch just radioed an alarm trigger-none of us had pushed it so we determined it was my movements(it was later confirmed by the manager that our alarms did have a mercury switch in them), that set it off-he radioed that he was "responding from the "video annex office" and everything was fine. dispatch rather than call off the alarm(very slow night), told the officer to time the response of other units in the area and the number of responders-within 3 minutes we had no less than 20 cops cars in our lot. Dispatch was amazed, I gave them all coffee and thanked them profusely-the one response I got that actually made me kinda tear up was the one cop that looked me in the eye and told me "you are the sweetest cashier I've ever known, I was actually terrified of that call, because if anything ever happened to you on my watch, I'd never be able to live with myself."
Sadly he did have to respond to an actual robbery when I was working-the assistant manager was beaten with a crowbar, he was the first responder and the first thing he saw was me covered in the AM's blood(I was on the phone and attempting to administer first aid/stop the bleeding from massive head trauma), he didn't leave my side for the rest of my shift(yes the boss made me finish out my shift, terrifed and blood soaked-I quit within a few weeks of that), though it is kind of nice to have a nice armed guard standing next to you for 5 hours(he was behind the counter with his arm around me the entire time), while you recover from shock, while both you and the police are afraid of the perp returning-especially because I knew him and had physically stopped the attack on my AM.
How did we find this out?
it seems one night during shift change whilst maneuvering amongst the second shift workers and their registers/drop safes I moved in a strange manner(ducking and bending sideways)-there happened to be an officer in the store doing paperwork(we let them use the unused counter in video-known to dispatch as the "video annex office"). He comes up to the counter and says dispatch just radioed an alarm trigger-none of us had pushed it so we determined it was my movements(it was later confirmed by the manager that our alarms did have a mercury switch in them), that set it off-he radioed that he was "responding from the "video annex office" and everything was fine. dispatch rather than call off the alarm(very slow night), told the officer to time the response of other units in the area and the number of responders-within 3 minutes we had no less than 20 cops cars in our lot. Dispatch was amazed, I gave them all coffee and thanked them profusely-the one response I got that actually made me kinda tear up was the one cop that looked me in the eye and told me "you are the sweetest cashier I've ever known, I was actually terrified of that call, because if anything ever happened to you on my watch, I'd never be able to live with myself."
Sadly he did have to respond to an actual robbery when I was working-the assistant manager was beaten with a crowbar, he was the first responder and the first thing he saw was me covered in the AM's blood(I was on the phone and attempting to administer first aid/stop the bleeding from massive head trauma), he didn't leave my side for the rest of my shift(yes the boss made me finish out my shift, terrifed and blood soaked-I quit within a few weeks of that), though it is kind of nice to have a nice armed guard standing next to you for 5 hours(he was behind the counter with his arm around me the entire time), while you recover from shock, while both you and the police are afraid of the perp returning-especially because I knew him and had physically stopped the attack on my AM.
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