I am a security guard. With the outbreak, we have gotten A LOT of new companies and contracts, and there have been several stores that hire my company for “Mask Enforcement” — basically, refusing service for anyone who tries to walk in without a facial covering.

I’m working one of these new contracts for a home improvement shop. My job at this location is extremely simple and narrow. If I see someone walk in without a mask, I stand between them and the gate, inquire as to their lack of mask, and give them the option of purchasing a mask for less than fifty cents at the nearby customer service desk if they do not have one of their own.

For the most part, people are kind and understanding; many of them apologize, saying they forgot, quickly dig out a mask from a pocket or a purse, and go on about their way. One day, however, I meet [Customer].

I stop an elderly gentleman and ask if he has a mask. He laughs, pulls it out of his pocket saying he always forgets, puts it on, and walks through the turnstile. As I am having the conversation with him, in walks [Customer], staring me down, no mask, and almost runs into the elderly gentleman as she tries to rush past me.

I step in her way with a kind smile.

Me: “Hello, ma’am, do you have a mask today?”

Customer: “No, and I don’t need one, either!”

Me: “I am sorry, but the store policy states that everyone is required to wear a mask, if you need one you can get one over there—” *pointing to the customer service desk* “—for just forty-two cents.”

Customer: “I told you, I don’t need a mask. I just need a washing machine. Where are they?”

Me: “I don’t know where the washing machines are; however, I can’t let you past this point without a mask. Please either get one on or see the customer service desk to purchase one.”

Customer: “What do you mean, you don’t know where the washing machines are?! What kind of incompetent worker are you?”

Me: “I am not an employee of this store; I work for a third-party security company. I do not know the store, but you cannot go through these gates without a mask.”

During this time, the customer tries to walk around me multiple times. I keep stepping in front of her, keeping my hands low, and calmly repeating, “You need a mask.”

Customer: “You obviously work here! And I don’t like your attitude. Either tell me where I can get a washing machine or get the h*** out of my way!”

Me: “She—” *pointing to a customer service employee* “—will be more than able to help you find what you need, as well as sell you a mask so you can shop here.”

At this point, the employee realizes that something isn’t right; for the most part, as a guard, I smile and wave, pace, and don’t really interact with customers. So, when I am no longer smiling, standing still, and speaking with a customer, this usually means that something is going wrong.

Employee: “Hello! What can I do to help today?”

Me: “She is looking—”

Customer: “I want a washing machine and he refuses to tell me where they are. He just keeps getting in my way and telling me to wear a d*** mask!”

Employee: “I am sorry, but he does not work within the store. His job is just to enforce the mask rules. I would be more than happy to help. Do you have a mask today?”

Customer: “No, I don’t have a mask, and I’m not wearing one!”

She starts on some long-winded rant about HIPAA and civil rights.

Employee: “Well, ma’am, he won’t let you in without a mask, and unless you have one, I will be unable to assist you in getting the washing machine you want.”

Customer: “I’ve had enough! Get me your manager now!”

The employee then gets on her walkie and radios for a manager to come up.

Manager: “Hello, how are you doing today?”

Customer: “I’m doing horrible! Your employees are useless! They refuse to help me and won’t even let me in the store! I demand you fire them both!”

Manager: “I am sorry, but he—” *pointing to me* “—is not an employee here. We hired his company to enforce mask policies—”

Customer: “I’ve already told you people I won’t wear a f****** mask! Now fire these people and help me get my washing machine!”

She is escalating more and more and is getting very close to the manager, which triggers my training. Normally, I am not allowed to go hands-on; however, there is an exception when there is a significant threat of violence to me or employees of the company I am working at, and it’s starting to appear as if some violence may happen.

Me: “Ma’am, I am going to need you to calm down and please back away from the manager. We don’t want any physical contact.”

Customer: “I’m not talking to you. You’re about to be fired, anyway; you might as well go home already!”

Manager: “He’s not going to be fired; he’s doing his job. I would be more than happy to take you to our washing machines, but you need to get a mask first.”

There’s another five-minute argument, during which I am forced to stand between the manager and the customer as she is getting more and more aggressive. The manager takes this chance to motion for the customer service employee to call the police.

Manager: “At this point, I am going to have to ask you to leave. I won’t have you yelling at our security or refusing to follow our policies.”

Customer: *To my manager* “I’m not leaving until you fire this a**hole and I get my washing machine!” *To me* “And get out of my way! Don’t you know it’s rude to get between two people talking?!”

Manager: “He is doing his job making sure no violence happens. We have called the cops. Leave now!”

About five minutes later, the cops arrived. [Customer] was screaming that we had physically assaulted her and hit her when all she wanted to do was get a washing machine, and even after the police reviewed the camera footage, she held to her story. As they attempted to trespass her from the store, she swung at me and luckily missed. That, however, was enough for her to leave the store in handcuffs.

I’m not sure why she thought I was an employee. My uniform is grey and black with a bright red logo, and the store’s uniform is a lot of blues and greens. But all’s well that ends with an entitled customer in the back of a police car.

Related:
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 11
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 10
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 9
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 8
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 7

I just got hired as a part-time cashier at a local pizza place. Today is my first official shift, and I am excited to get started. I go over to the time clock to punch in when a woman in her thirties appears.

Woman: “Don’t even bother. You’re fired.”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Woman: “I’ve had enough of your bulls***. Get out and don’t ever come back.”

Me: “You must be mistaken; this is my first —”

Woman: “DON’T EVEN TRY THAT EXCUSE WITH ME, YOUNG LADY! YOU ARE FIRED, AND YOU ARE GOING TO LEAVE THIS RESTAURANT AND NEVER COME BACK!”

She then GRABS me by the arm and drags me toward the exit.

Me: “What are you doing? Let go of me!”

Woman: “You stupid f****** brat! I AM SICK AND TIRED OF YOU!”

When we reach the door, she shoves me, HARD. I lose my balance and fall onto the pavement.

Woman: “OUT! AND STAY OUT!”

She slams the door behind her. I’m so terrified at that point that all I can do is run to my car and speed home. Later that day, I get a call from the restaurant. The person on the other end introduces himself as the general manager and thoroughly apologizes for what happened. It turns out that the woman who screamed at me and then dragged me out of the building was a supervisor, who was fired almost immediately upon the GM discovering it on the cameras. She apparently mistook me for a different employee, who looked almost exactly like me but had a long history of slacking off. The GM tells me I am not fired and promises me it won’t happen again. Problem solved, right?

Wrong. When I clock in for my next shift two days later, a shift manager does the EXACT SAME THING to me, right down to dragging me by the arm to the exit. This time, the GM witnesses the incident and fires the shift manager on the spot. Again, he apologizes, but I tell him I’m no longer interested in working for someone who would allow s*** like this to happen more than once. I get a new job at a different pizza place just up the street soon after. The place I left ends up closing by the end of the summer for separate reasons, but what happened to me could NOT have helped matters for them. As for the ex-supervisor and ex-shift manager? They both plead guilty to simple assault and get short prison sentences. Both have recently been released from prison, but I’ve yet to see either of them since then.

My late mother-in-law was an elementary school secretary for years — more than twenty years at the time of this incident. She was considered a classified employee, in the same category as teaching assistants, janitors, and any employee but teachers. As such, there was a salary schedule, based on years worked. One to three years earned a certain number of dollars, five to seven years a certain amount more, and so on.

Every year, she would have an evaluation, always getting good scores, and the school district would send her a contract for the following year stating the proposed salary, usually with a small raise. The thing was, the schedule only went up to fifteen years. It had never really been a problem until the district got a new treasurer.

Several months after the treasurer started, he walked into the school office, stopped by her desk, and announced in front of everyone there:

Treasurer: “I’ve been looking through the records and I see you’re making too much money. I’ll let you know what I find.”

And he left, leaving everyone speechless. The principal went out after him and told him to not discuss personnel matters in front of everyone. The treasurer shrugged and left. My mother-in-law was shaken, having no idea what had just happened. She probably wasn’t making more than ten or eleven thousand dollars, not a great amount even then. And it happened several more times, despite the principal’s efforts to get this idiot to talk privately about things.

My mother-in-law didn’t tell us any of this until the treasurer blew into the office one day.

Treasurer: “I’ve figured this out. All you have to do is pay back what we’ve overpaid you. And we’ll only go back for five years since it was mostly our mistake.”

And he left.

That night, my mother-in-law told us, in tears, what was going on. Honestly, I think she was secretly hoping we would give her the money and she could just forget the whole thing. She was estimating it would be around $4,000.

I had a different idea. My oldest sister is a lawyer. I’ve never before or since asked her for free legal help, but I figured circumstances warranted it. I explained the situation to her. After she stopped laughing, she said:

Sister: “Does that idiot know how many legal actions he’s opened the school up to? Civil actions, department of labor actions?”

Me: “What do we do?”

Sister: “Do you have one of my business cards? Write my home phone number on it. If this jerk comes back, and I’m sure he will, tell your mother-in-law to give him the card and say the following: ‘This is my niece’s business card. She is acting as my attorney in this matter. If you have anything else to say, call her. I have nothing else to say.’ Then she should just walk away.”

My mother-in-law was horrified. She was extremely non-confrontational, especially to figures of authority.

Mother-In-Law: “I couldn’t possibly say anything like that to him!”

Me: “You’ve got two choices: stand up to this guy or find the money to pay back.”

Mother-In-Law: *Unhappily* “Well, maybe it will all blow over.”

But she took the card. And sure enough, the treasurer came back a couple of weeks later. This time, though, she was called into the principal’s office. She took the card and walked in. The treasurer started in, all magnanimous.

Treasurer: “I understand how hard it will be for you to pay back the money all at once, so I’ve devised a payment plan.”

At that, my mother-in-law finally got mad. She handed him the business card, said her piece, and left. Then, she went straight to the ladies’ room and started crying. A few minutes later, one of the other secretaries came in laughing.

Secretary: “I don’t know what you said to him, but he ran out of the office like it was on fire.”

When my mother-in-law went back to the office, the principal and everyone else were laughing, too.

Principal: “[Treasurer]’s jaw practically hit the floor! He went white as a ghost and ran out of my office like the devil was chasing him.”

A couple of weeks later, my mother-in-law got a letter from the head of Human Resources saying that the matter had been investigated, nothing improper had been found, and the matter was now closed. I don’t know if anything happened to the treasurer, but anytime he came into the school office, he wouldn’t even look at her up to the day she retired.

This story is part of our Best Of June 2021 roundup!

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It is an unusually busy time of day. The parking lot is packed full of customers either dropping off or picking up their pets, and there is only one person working the receptionist position. I am a groomer, but I am asked to help by picking up a ringing phone nearby. Due to the ongoing crisis, we are doing curbside service and not letting anyone in the building. You call us and we go to your car.

Customer: “Hi, I’m picking up Winter! How much is it going to be?”

Me: “Okay! Let me take a look at the estimate you signed, and I’ll let our receptionist know you’re picking up.”

I check the price.

Me: “Okay, looks like it’s [price] for the bath and [additional fee] for the medicated shampoo you asked us to use.”

Customer: “What? Did you raise your prices? I’ve never paid that much!”

I explain the price breakdown and tell her there was a price increase at the start of the year. It’s now summertime. She continues to complain, so I ask her if I can have someone go out and talk to her. She says yes and tells me which car she’s in — the only car in the lot of that color — and I let my manager know what’s up.

Manager: *Approaches the car* “Are you picking up Winter?”

Customer: “No! We’re not!”

Manager: “Oh, I’m sorry about that.”

My manager starts looking for the owner, eventually going back inside to look at the account to call them back. The customer storms in without a mask, which is at this point ILLEGAL.

Customer: “Where’s my dog? What’s the holdup? I’ve been waiting forever!”

Manager: “Sir, I need you to step outside. Nobody is allowed in the building right now and you have to be wearing a mask. Who are you picking up?”

Customer: “It’s Winter! I’m not leaving till I get my dog! You need to get me my dog right now!”

Manager: “Sir, I came to your car and asked if you were here for Winter, but you said no.”

Customer: “Yeah! Why aren’t you getting my dog?! You came to my car!”

Manager: “I did, but you said Winter wasn’t your dog. If you could please step outside, we can continue this conversation.”

My manager steps outside and the customer follows.

Customer: “This is unacceptable! We’ve been waiting so long!”

Manager: “I’m sorry for the wait, but as you can see, we are very busy and other customers have come to pick up their dogs as well, and it’s just the one receptionist.”

Customer: “We’ve been waiting longer than them!”

The customers who are waiting outside patiently, who were here first, are giving this guy the stink eye. He doesn’t notice and continues his rant.

Customer: “Obviously, you don’t know how to do your job right! This is horrible customer service! You should give me a discount for this! And I want my dog now!”

Manager: “I’m sorry, sir, but the price that was signed for during check-in, [price], is what the price of the bath and special shampoo is. I will not be giving you a discount today, especially not after how mean you’ve been. Furthermore, we will not be releasing your dog to you until the bill is paid, as per policy.”

After more ranting and raving, my stone-faced manager gets the guy to cough up the dough and he brings the dog out.

Manager: “Here’s your receipt, sir.”

Customer: “I’M NEVER COMING BACK AGAIN!”

Manager: “That’s fine, sir. We do not want your business and you are no longer welcome here.”

I was on a two-hour-long car ride. Midway home, I saw a woman waving down cars to get a lift. I stopped and picked her up, and she asked if I could take a ten-minute detour, adding twenty minutes to my drive. I obliged since it was winter and we were in Canada. I always pick up hitchhikers if I can and try to be nice since I’ve needed to hitchhike many times.

Upon getting there, she offered me $5 if I’d wait for her for maximum five minutes to bring her to another destination. I was a bit impatient, but I figured $5 is gas money and is always useful. So, I waited. She came back out and told me she didn’t have a $5 bill, and she was already in the car, so I might as well bring her home.

I asked her if she had any higher bills she could split and that I had fives and tens, just to see if she’d follow through on the deal. Nope. She asked me if I could straight-up give her $10. Nothing in between.

I was taken aback. I ignored it and stayed silent but I was a bit pissed. We got to the lady’s place and she asked again if I could give her $10. This time, I told her, “No, I’m sorry but I think I already did plenty tonight. I don’t know you. I’ve taken quite a detour and was promised $5. My good deed is done.”

You’d think that would have been enough to get her out of my car. Nope. She asked me at least four more times if I was 100% sure I could not spare her a $10 or even just $5, without giving a reason as to why she needed it. I was mind blown and pissed off at this stranger’s attitude but still gave her a simple “no,” to stay polite at least.

Eventually, she got out of my car and I drove off, but man, did I regret not being an a**hole.