I work in a movie theater. A middle-aged man comes in during a busy holiday and watches the greeter for whenever they are distracted helping other customers, and then sneaks into the screens.

We catch him later on security cameras, as he has managed to watch multiple movies using this tactic while only paying for one. Since we can get into a lot of trouble if that sort of thing happens too much, we keep an eye out for him.

It’s another holiday and the theater is swamped, and he comes in. I’m the greeter that day, so I keep an eye on him. He does indeed theater-hop at one point when he thinks he’s not being watched. I send a manager in, and they agree to let him stay in the theater he hopped into, but if he’s caught hopping again, he’ll be kicked out.

Sure enough, a short while later, he slyly tries to sneak into the next theater, which is already playing. My manager agrees to watch the greeter stand while I go in. I approach him in the dark.

Me: “Excuse me, sir, may I see your ticket?”

He knows he’s caught and struggles to think quickly.

Customer: “But I had to come to this theater. I think I lost my glasses in this one!”

Neither time he came in did he have glasses with him.

Me: “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

He screams loud enough that everyone turns and looks.

Customer: “NO!”

I ended up leaving and sending in my manager. She left the theater five minutes later, shaking her head and muttering about calling the cops if he didn’t come out after the next time she went in.

Shortly after, my manager went back in with a group of employees, who I am told surrounded him in the theater and blocked his view, and returned another few minutes later with the man, who was absolutely fuming that he was actually being kicked out.

He then went up to the box office and demanded his original ticket be refunded since he “didn’t get his satisfaction as a customer.” He was refused a refund, and last I heard, our GM had put him on a temporary ban that will become permanent if he tries this again.

A customer leaves a huge pile of crap on the side of our storage building. I know it was him because when I came in, I saw him put the all the same stuff behind his vehicle. My manager has him charged for the clean-up. He later calls asking about the charge. When I explain, he gets angry.

Customer: “You can’t prove that was my stuff. This is totally unfair! I wasn’t even at my storage unit today.”

Me: “Sir, I saw you with that stuff just this morning by your car, and you came into the office and spoke to me twice personally, so I know you were here, and we have you on video.”

Customer: “Well, that doesn’t matter because I didn’t touch the stuff. It wasn’t even my stuff. My mom was working with some guys I hired and they left the mess.”

Me: “Sir, it’s your storage unit, you were present at the time of all of this, and you are the one responsible.”

Customer: “But you don’t understand! I didn’t touch the stuff! I shouldn’t have to pay for the clean-up, that’s my mom’s and the guy’s! It’s the hired guy’s fault! All I was doing was sitting in my car and playing on my phone.”

We have courtesy clerks, who are also called baggers. Most people hired are hired as courtesy clerks and make their way up through different positions in the store. If you have special skills, such as a butcher or cake decorator you get hired directly to that department. I was hired as a cashier.

My bagger and I are moving along like a well-oiled machine. I’m very fast and he is able to keep up with me with no problems. My bagger is great at his job; he knows not to put the potatoes on the eggs and to keep the frozen foods together, etc.

My customer does not like at all how he is bagging and everything he puts in a bag is wrong.

Customer: “No, put that with the bread!”

Customer: “No no, that goes with the ice cream! Are you stupid? You are doing it all wrong!”

We both try to remain polite and he just does as asked. She finally yells:

Customer: “Get out of here! I’ll just do it myself!”

My bagger comes up and whispers to me:

Bagger: “I’m gonna use the bathroom before I say something I’ll regret.”

Customer: *Yells* “Get me your manager!”

The manager comes over and the customer starts with all kinds of lies.

Customer: “He was being rude, he was throwing my groceries, refusing to bag them, he called me names, and he whispered something nasty about me to the cashier.”

About this time my bagger returns. My manager tells him to go clock out and go home. I am in shock. The next person in line is with the shouting customer, and she looks so embarrassed.

Customer’s Friend: *Quietly* “I’m sorry. She is actually very nice.”

Since she is the last in line, after she leaves I turn off my light and go to the office to talk to my manager.

Me: “[Bagger] did everything by the book. That customer was absolutely in the wrong!”

My manager knows I would never lie so we watch the CCTV and although there is no sound, we can tell exactly what happened from the body language. We find [Bagger] getting his stuff from his locker.

Manager: “I apologize. [My Name] stood up for you and told me what happened. You can leave but you’ll still be paid for the day.”

Never saw that customer again.

A customer in the drive-thru orders two sandwiches with a lot of extra stuff added on and makes both into large, rather expensive meals. Then, he gets to my window to pay.

Customer: “Yeah, my wife and I ordered this food a few days ago and they messed up the order. My wife called and they said they’d replace it.”

I know I’ve seen the man before because he has very distinguished facial hair and he pulled pretty much the exact same story as he did last time, only last time he got away with it. I decide to play along and pretend I don’t know his scam.

Me: “All right, sir, we’re sorry about that. I’ll just need to see your receipt.”

Customer: “I don’t have it with me. My wife called it in and the manager said it would be replaced.”

Me: “All right, well, what was the name of the manager you spoke to?”

Customer: “I don’t know. Some lady.”

Me: “What’s your name? I’ll have them look it up in the book.”

The customer gives a different name than he used last time. 

Me: “Okay, just wait here. I’ll be right back.”

I go to my manager and tell him about the guy who I know is scamming us and tell him everything I remember from last time he scammed us. My manager, who used to work at a different store of the same chain across town, follows me to the back where the man is waiting.

Manager: “So, you don’t have a receipt, you don’t know who you spoke to, and you’re not in our books. I recognize you from my other store. You’re trying to get free food.”

Customer: *Realizing he’s caught* “No, that wasn’t me. That was my brother!”

Manager: *Laughing to himself* “No, I’m pretty sure that’s you. Don’t bother trying this at any other stores. I’m sending your description to other stores. Now get out of my drive-thru before I call the cops.”

The man drove away and has not been seen scamming at my store since.

A customer has come to our store with a return of several window blinds and he has the receipt taped to one of the blinds. I take the receipt to complete the return but find that it does not match with the products.

Me: “Do you have another receipt? This isn’t the right one.”

Customer: “No, it has to be. I specifically asked the lady who served me to tape it on so I didn’t lose it.”

Me: “This isn’t for blinds; it’s only for $2. Did you buy something else at the same time?”

Customer: “No, I paid almost $300 in cash for these yesterday.”

I call the store manager over to see if he can find the correct sale in the register, thinking we could print the correct receipt up, but all he can find is the $2 sale; there’s no sale that matches and none for over $200. He is dumbfounded and tries clicking buttons to see if the sale was done on other days but accidentally brings up sales that have been put on hold. There is one sale from the day before on there for the exact blinds the customer is returning.

Manager: “I can’t understand why it’s been put on hold; it means that it’s not finalised and hasn’t been paid for.”

Customer: “But I did pay for them. I got the money out of the bank right before I came here. I have the bank receipt in my wallet, along with the change, because I gave the girl three one-hundred-dollar notes.”

Manager: “If you wait here for a few moments, I’ll check the takings from yesterday. [My Name], will you carry on with [task and code for ‘watch this guy’]?”

A few minutes later, the manager comes back. He takes the customer aside while I keep on my task. He looks a bit pale as he quietly talks to the customer and takes his details before handing over money for the refund, and the customer leaves.  

Me: “You found the money, then?”

Manager: *Shaking his head* “No, I can’t talk about it. I’ll be in the office if you need me. I know you should be leaving soon, but are you able to stay for the rest of the day?”

Me: “Sure.”

I assumed that my replacement had called in sick, but ten minutes later she walked in, followed not long later by the police, who asked to see the manager.

Later, I saw my coworker walk out with the police; she was in tears and wearing cuffs. The manager told me that he’d checked the CCTV, and he saw the customer hand over $300 and be given $20 back, along with the receipt being taped in place. After the customer left, the coworker put the remainder of the money in her pocket.

What she would do was to ring the sale up, put the sale on hold, and then ring up a $2 item. She had thought that a held sale would cancel out at the end of the day, but they stayed in the system. There was a long list of held sales under her name going back months, each matched to the date and time of a $2 cash sale. She had stolen close to $20,000.

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