Preventing The Loss Of Your Olfactory Senses

When I was in high school, I went shopping at the local mall with two of my friends. At the time, it was common for people to smoke everywhere with no restrictions. We were looking at many things, laughing, joking around, and having a good time.

Then, in a large department store, we noticed we were being followed even though we couldn’t see who was tailing us; he reeked of body odor and very floral, unpleasant cigar or pipe smoke. We were looking at records — yes, that long ago — and the smoke wafted our way, so we hightailed it to accessories. There was that stink again. Off to another department, and wouldn’t you know it, there the stench followed. Figuring where it was coming from, we peeked around the end of a display and saw a man trying to look unobtrusive but very much failing to do so. We let him know, in no uncertain terms, that he was to stop following us.

A few months later, after high school graduation, I started work for the local small-town police department. Although my job was primarily filing and acting as relief dispatcher, I occasionally accompanied an officer — all men — to pick up a female suspect. One day, the destination was that same department store, where they’d detained a suspected shoplifter. Entering the office, I saw, and smelled, that the loss prevention officer was that same creepy man!

I’m sure he thought we were acting suspiciously those months before because we kept quickly moving from location to location without buying anything, although he was close enough he should have been able to hear us talking about why we were doing it. I really don’t know how he could catch anyone unless they had no sense of smell!

Shortly after, the mall banned smoking and the number of apprehensions increased so I was back several times. The man still stunk of BO, but at least that truly awful smoke smell was mostly gone, thank goodness.