Giving Customers A Reason To Be Anxious

(I am walking through the centre aisle of the supermarket when a colleague screams out:)

Colleague: “NO! I ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT HAVE SEX WITH YOU!”

(I run to the aisle and make it just as security arrives as well. The colleague is shaking and the man is staring at her completely confused. The man is escorted to a secure area while the police are called, and the colleague is taken to the staff room. I go into the administration office with the other managers on duty. We check the footage to see if anything was caught. We see him walk up to the colleague and ask a question, she then slaps him and shouts. Moments later I appear. We go into the staff room to see how the colleague is doing. She has calmed down a bit.)

Colleague: “Is the man all right?”

Me: “Is HE all right?”

Colleague: “I don’t want him to get in trouble.”

Me: “But he solicited you!”

Colleague: *starting to cry* “NO! He… he asked me where the bolognese sauce was, and I panicked…”

Manager: “So, you accused him of coming on to you?”

Colleague: “I PANICKED!”

(I got a call on my phone from security that we needed to come out. There was a woman screaming in the background. We all went out as the police arrived. The man appeared to have been beaten, admittedly by his wife, who was being held on the other side of the room. We explained the situation and the wife fainted at the revelation. Everyone was allowed to leave, but we requested that our colleague apologise for the confusion. She refused, and I apologised for her. Our colleague had worked with us for several years at that point and we had never had a problem. She had an anxiety disorder, but was adamant that she was fine. It happened another two times [one where she actually screamed “rape” after an elderly gentleman asked if she could check an expiry date], before she admitted she had stopped taking her medication; the reason being that she was nervous to submit the repeat prescription. We offered her paid leave while she got herself sorted out, but after a month she handed in her notice.)