Staying Relatively Calm  

(At our store, an employee was recently fired. She left the office the very moment she was told she was fired, and wouldn’t come back to hear anything else. At the end of the night, we discover she left her purse behind! Since she removed all of her contact info, we have no way to reach her or mail her stuff to her. We don’t want to throw her stuff out because we figure she has important things in there like her state ID and bank card, so my boss decides if she doesn’t return by the end of the week, we’ll turn it over to police. Three days pass without her returning, but a coworker has her sister’s phone number, and says she’ll call the sister to get the stuff. Her sister has come into the store before, so we know what she looks like and we won’t have a problem giving it to her. During the evening, about two hours before closing, I pick up a phone call.)

Me: “Thank you for holding. This is [My Name] speaking.”

Caller: “Yeah, hey. I’m [Former Employee’s Sister]. I’m getting ready to leave to come to pick up her stuff. Why didn’t anyone just call her?”

Me: “We no longer have contact info for your sister, so we have no way to reach her.”

Caller: “Yeah, she told me that she took all of it off, but I thought you would have it backed up or something. She figured out later on she left her purse, but she was going to replace everything.”

Me: “Why? We would’ve given it back. If her stuff wasn’t picked up by the end of the week, we were going to turn it over to the police.”

Caller: “I guess you can’t tell me what happened, but she’s really mad at you. You know we live together, right? She came home and slammed the door when she came in. I asked her what was wrong and she just screamed at me and locked herself in her room all day.”

Me: “I see. So, I guess she’s cooled down now?”

Caller: “If she did, she’d be picking up her stuff. No, she said she’d rather lose all her stuff than step foot in your store again. I tried to talk her into going, but she said if I made her come along, she’d give you all absolute h*** for the night. Don’t know what anyone over there said to her, but she’s dying to curse all of you out to h*** and back, so she’s better off staying away. Not kidding. She told me this from her own mouth.”

Me: “Ma’am, forgive me for asking, but you’re talking like this is normal. You’re not upset with her or us?”

Caller: *laughing* “Nah. My sister and I are besties, so I know what she’s like when she’s mad. She’s had a bad temper since we were kids. She was a lot worse when we were younger, so what you’re seeing is better. When she was 13, she trashed a classroom because the teacher accused her of cheating and got her in trouble. She was innocent, though, so can’t blame her. Anyway, I’m leaving right now. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

(She hung up and I was left stunned for a bit. True to her word, she came about twenty minutes later, picked up her sister’s belongings, and bought a stuffed animal she thought would cheer her sister up. She was beyond polite to us, too. Hard to believe she and the former employee are related.)