This happened a few years ago. I was working the last shift at a gas station along a major highway. The manager shouldn’t have put me on the last shift, which went very late, as I was only eighteen years old and studying for college, especially considering that the gas station was a short drive out of town, but he did.
Twenty minutes before closing time, I am behind the counter when I see a smartly-dressed woman in her forties come inside followed by two younger women a few years older than me. They are both scruffily dressed and their clothes do not fit. One of them is wearing a T-shirt and trousers that are about two sizes too small. Both are carrying those cloth bags that you buy from a supermarket to reuse.
Woman: “Can my daughters look around quickly? I promise we won’t be long.”
Me: “Okay.”
I need to tidy the shelves anyway, so I leave the counter. I notice that wherever I go, the woman stays in the same aisle, even closer if one of the two girls is nearby. The girls keep looking at the bars of candy or browsing the rows of clothes. One of the two young women picks up a pretty dress.
Girl #1: “Do you think she’ll let us get this?”
Girl #2: *Sniggering* “The woman who makes you, me, and [Other Girl] wear three bras between us?”
The first girl also starts to giggle, putting the dress back.
Girl #1: “Who knows what’ll happen by the time [Other Girls] starts puberty?”
They keep glancing over chocolate and magazines while I go to count stock. The older woman comes up to me with a T-shirt.
Woman: “Sorry, but could you please take the security tag off for me? I want to pay.”
I go over to the register while the woman keeps going on about the difficulty of finding a good outfit. I soon feel as if she is distracting me. Then, I hear a shout from the two girls. I run over and see that the first girl has fallen on the floor.
Me: “Are you all right?”
Girl #1: “No. My leg hurts.”
I couldn’t see any damage, but I started going into protocol. As I said, I was the only person on shift. My manager had his phone number on a sticky note behind the counter, but my phone was back there. When I tried to get up to leave, the girl whined again.
After what seemed like forever, the woman was standing next to me. I turned to her for help, but she pushed me into a rack of clothing. Before I could get up, I felt the kick of her boot in my face. I heard the three of them running away. When I got up, I found that several items had gone missing and the till was empty.
I called my manager, who then chewed me out for leaving the till unmanned. A total of $316 had been stolen from the register, as well as $276 in goods. Thankfully, my manager didn’t make me pay back the money, but I left that job as soon as I was able to.