I am a manager at a family-owned electronics store. I’m sitting at my desk in the back when the head cashier runs in.

Cashier: “I just noticed a $30 flashlight disappear from my area. I know when it was there and when it was gone.”

Great. We have an easy range to review in the security footage. Sure enough, someone waited until he was distracted and slipped a flashlight off its charging base and right into their pocket. The best part? He is a regular, and we have all of his contact information. My boss decides to give him a call.

Customer: “Hello?”

Boss: “Hey, [Customer]. I saw you were just in my store. That’s a nice flashlight you have there in your pocket.”

There is silence for a moment.

Customer: “I don’t know what you mean.”

Boss: “We have it all on video. You did it so easily, I wonder what else you’ve stolen from me over the years. The trouble is, I don’t know what you’re gonna do without the charging base. Tell you what. Never show up in my store again.”

At that point, there was a lot of sobbing and apologizing and begging. My boss took the call off of speaker so I couldn’t hear the rest.

[Boss] was pretty upset at first but started softening the longer the shoplifter cried. The customer apologized, returned the flashlight, and was finally allowed to shop again, but only with an escort.

It is 2019, and our display computers and laptops will sometimes default to the Google homepage when not running our in-store promos. A male customer is looking at the laptops.

Customer: “Why does your Google look different to mine?”

I check, and Google does indeed look different today. The Google logo has been changed to one of the many temporary “Google Doodles”. This one is of an animated cartoon woman scaling a bunch of icy mountain peaks, with the word “Google” stretched out at the bottom of the mountains.

Me: “Oh, Google will sometimes change their logo to commemorate a special event or something.” *Checks what this one is for* “This one is to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb Mount Everest.”

Customer: “I always knew Google lied to the people, but this proves it!”

Me: “What do you mean?”

Customer: “There’s never been a woman on Everest! They wouldn’t be allowed!”

Me: “That’s not true. The first was in 1975, and there have been hundreds since then.”

Customer: “I bet you got that from Google, too, huh?”

Me: “Yes, actually, but it’s also true.”

Customer: “This is the problem with the Internet! All you women start reading it and making stuff up on it to ’empower’ you, and then you get all these stupid ideas. Women don’t have the strength and lung capacity to climb mountains, so Google is lying to you.”

Me: *Keeping my customer service composure* “I think we’ll have to agree to disagree, sir.”

Customer: “Anyway, I need a computer, with Internet!”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, my manager (also a woman) jumps in and takes over the interaction with the customer.

Manager: “Sorry, sir, our computers are from the twenty-first century, and you’re still stuck in the early twentieth. Please come back when you’ve caught up with the times.”

Customer: “What?! You rude b****! Where’s your manager?”

Manager: “The general manager is also a woman, so she doesn’t have the strength or lung capacity to deal with you. Take care, and have a nice day!” *Huge scary smile* 

Customer: *Storming off* “F****** women, ruining everything!”

Customer: “I need the information off of my old phone.”

Me: *Looking around* “Okay, where is it?”

Customer: “At the bottom of a lake.”

Me: “…”

Customer: “Will that be a problem?” 

Me: “Did you back it up in the cloud?”

Customer: “It’s in a lake, not a cloud! Keep up!”

I used to work in a consumer electronics pop-up store. We had rather valuable products on display, and being in quite a visible spot in a busy shopping centre, we were quite an enticing site for shoplifters.

We normally only had two staff members on the floor, so when one of us was out to lunch, the other would be alone at the store, so we would constantly have to be on the lookout for shady customers.

During one particular shift, I was by myself on the floor and was serving a family of five, so my visibility of the other side of the store was obscured.

Whilst I was serving this family, I noticed a rather scruffy-looking man on crutches looking at one of our products on the other side of the store. He was intently looking around every few seconds and looked very nervous so, naturally, he immediately raised a red flag with me, but I couldn’t just leave my customers before completing their transaction.

I kept a keen eye on this shady man throughout the transaction, and just as I was about to complete it, I noticed him starting to leave. I couldn’t see anything missing from where I was, so I breathed a sigh of relief and finished the transaction. Then, I made my way over to the products the man had been standing near.

Much to my shock and horror, not only was one of the products missing, but the security cable attached to it was flaming!! This man had clearly used a lighter to sever the cable and then just walked off with the product. I was able to put out the flames but not before it damaged the products around it

I called security afterward, but I didn’t have any real hope of them finding the shoplifter as, more often than not, they would get away. Much to my surprise, though, within twenty minutes, they had located him. It turned out that he didn’t get far because he was missing a leg!

Related:
The More You Read The Worse It Gets, Part 17
The More You Read The Worse It Gets, Part 16
The More You Read The Worse It Gets, Part 15
The More You Read The Worse It Gets, Part 14
The More You Read The Worse It Gets, Part 13

I work in an electronics repair shop. A guy drops off his TV for repair, and when he comes back to pick it up, he’s angry about the cost.

Customer: “You girls must be wrong about that! Where’s your manager?”

Me: “I’m afraid the manager has stepped out for a bit, but the repair cost was explained to you at the beginning and—”

Of course, he doesn’t like this and interrupts me, starting a rant that seems to go on for quite a while. There’s an older lady (in her sixties) who works here, too. She steps up to take her turn getting yelled at. She politely listens while he screams at her.

Customer: “If that’s how much you think you can charge, you can shove that TV up your a**!”

Coworker: *With a straight face* “I’m afraid it won’t fit as I already have a stove and refrigerator up there. How would you like to pay for your bill?”

We “girls” just lost it.

This caused him to storm out, threatening to come back later when a “man” was around. He jumped into his truck and squealed out of the parking lot.

As he turned right, he hit a pole the gas company had permanently fixed to the sidewalk to keep vehicles from driving over the metal access doors. This pole hit the middle of the door and dug in. Because the guy was so furious, he had smashed down the gas pedal, and that pole creased his truck from the middle of the passenger door all the way to the tailgate.

He came back in to scream how we owed him repair money for his truck and was even angrier to find out that pole had nothing to do with our business and he’d have to explain the circumstances to the gas company and hope they would pay.