Yesterday while I was at work at the market, I was straightening up the apples when I couldn't help but notice a young woman who marched in. She was young, maybe 19, and she looked determined. I knew that look. I nodded to my boss, who was luckily working on price changes just across the table from me, and I looked towards the girl, who by this time was marching right down to the liquor aisle.
Sure enough, I watched her grab a bottle of Jack Daniels Whiskey and put it in the shopping cart. Then she ripped off her zippered sweat jacket and tossed it over the bottle. She whipped around the corner, and my boss and I followed.
She brazenly stomped through the grocery aisles and randomly threw items into the cart. She made a racket. A bottle of spagetti sauce was knocked on to the floor, spilling the red goo all over. One of my associates started to clean up, but my boss and I tried to keep an eye on the girl, who was moving very fast.
Suddenly, we lost her. I found the abandoned cart, and I quickly stepped through into the back room, thinking maybe she had tried to skip out the back door. I didn't see her, so I went back up to the front of the store.
Then I spotted her, coming out of the public restroom, which is near the cashiers and the entrance and exit doors to the market.
She was carrying her sweatshirt, and it was bulky. I panicked, where was my boss? I went to the foyer, and my boss soon showed up.
He apprehended her. She had a bottle, but it was not the bottle of whiskey. It was a large water bottle, filled with brown liquid.
My boss took her into the store, and she struggled. In fact, she screamed bloody murder! She made a big scene, and all of our customers heard and saw her. My boss is a tall man, 6 feet and very strong, and this little runt was giving him a run for his money. As we waited for the police to show up, she yelled and cursed and rustled and bit.
It was awful.
Thankfully, the police officer cuffed her and locked her in his cruiser so we could get back to business. When he came back to investigate, I found out from another co-worker that she had been in the bathroom for a while. Aha, I said to myself, that's where she did it.
Sure enough, the ladies room trash can had not only the empty bottle of whiskey, but also two other empty bottles of booze (different kinds, too!) She had been observed in the store already twice that day (before I was in to work), but I was the first one to point her out as a potential shoplifter.
I'm pretty good at that sniffing out the bad guys, but I HATE approaching them. And I usually don't, except one time I did, and I was sick about it.
Anyway, she got 7 counts against her, and my boss has to wait for tests back to make sure he didn't get anything transmitted by her bites.
This is an example of the down side of working in the public. ICKY!
*edit: There is more to the story.
-The broken jar of sauce was her way to distract.
-Earlier in the day, a girl came in for an interview. Later, when my bossed asked what the shoplifter's name was, she gave the same name as the girl that had interviewed earlier that day. So, they were a team and the interview was another distraction.
-As the day wore on, and with each shoplifting attempt (and success) she/they got more and more intoxicated, and a lot bolder and stupider.
-When she got apprehended, she acted like WE were in the wrong! Poor baby. The whole world was against her drunk self.
-At one point, when she was screaming bloody hell, I actually looked straight at her and caught her eye (I was 20 feet away from her) and I crossed my eyebrows and said "SHHHHH!" (I'm so silly). But, it worked for a second. I think for one second, my voice of reason sunk into her bloated head, but not for long!
-When I got home from work a few hours later, I headed straight for the wine cabinet and had a long drink myself!
-Damn kids.
-And dumb store. It's a freaking free-for-all in there! I've seen so many kids come in and steal booze. I can't go into all of the stupid things that gone on there, but it's really out of my hands.
-It's really sad.
However, at least we stopped one or two more minors with no money from helping themselves to our wares. It's not really so much the loss of money for the store that gets me, it's the fact that these kids are spending an entire Tuesday drinking very powerful poison and wasting their lives away...
Needless to say, all day today at work I kept looking over my shoulder, even though I know the girl was arrested and taken to the drunk tank, far away in the city. But your can't help but worry about retaliation. I kept running an escape plan in my head all day. That kind of sucked.
AND, to top it ALL off, when I got to my new Jeep today to drive home, I noticed a nail sticking out of one of the back tires.
GRRR! I was able to get home, but now we got to get it fixed.
It's always something.
OK sorry for the long post from hell.
But the whole thing really bummed me out man!
6 comments:
This creature BIT him? Oh I hope she doesn't have rabies! I also hope this creature doesn't drive!
Go directly to jail!
That sort of thing leaves you feeling soiled, ill, and scared! Poor Kate! You need loads of love and hugs.
That what I call a rough day.
If they put as much thought into something practical what might they achieve. But, as someone once said to me in a different context, 'it's nice to have a hobby'.
I know, Debi! She did go directly to jail, after she went to the hospital to get tested for rabies, et al. It's just so sad and frustrating, and left a general feeling of ickiness.
Thanks Dragonstar, I did need a hug. I'm still shaken by the incident, but all I can do is carry on.
So true, Aileni. Tis sad that all of that energy got put into something so unproductive and bad. Bad bad bad little girls. As my boss said to me the next day, you have to wonder what the parent (s) of this ruffian have to say.. if she has any. Prolly not. She probably had a tough life, no doubt.
But still, do you have to steal and drink and march down the road to doom?
OHMYGOD, Kate! I didn't know it was so bad. I must read your blog for often! It sounds to me that those two girls must have come from a broken home, or been abused, or what not. But then again maybe not. Obviously they had no money and a drinking problem. You told me about the nail yesterday but not so much about that bad girl. Don't worry, you prolly did get through to her and reminded her of reality during that eye-contact second. She might even be grateful when she's sober, if she even remembers.
It was such an icky experience that I couldn't bear to bring the subject up again! I feel better now.
Thanks for stopping by!
(Oh and, no, I doubt she will remember much about that day at all.. she was far too intoxicated. She was charged with seven counts against her, so she ought to be busy in the court system for a while.. though, she is a minor so she may get off.. If I find out what happened to her, I'll make a mention of it sometime.)
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