I work for a popular video game shop where you can bring in games to trade for cash or store credit.

Our particular location is in a somewhat seedier part of town, so everyone that works here is very used to people bringing in bottom-of-the-barrel, often dirty stuff to get a couple of bucks. Thus, I’m not surprised to see a strung-out woman pace up to the counter with a heavy-looking paper bag. I put on my best customer service face and get started.

Customer: “Just seeing what I can get for this stuff. It’s mostly my boyfriend’s so I don’t really know what’s in there.”

Me: “No problem. Go ahead and set the bag up here and I’ll start sorting it out.”

She seems either too distracted or reluctant to hand the bag over, but she finally does so when she hears her boyfriend calling from the door. While she heads back over to talk with him, I start unloading the bag. Predictably, it’s mostly titles we barely pay a quarter for, as well as some DVD box sets and such that we don’t take.

She comes back about the time that I’m getting to the bottom of the bag, so I look up at her as I try to finish.

Customer: “He just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything in there he wanted.”

Me: “Well, you’re free to take back the DVDs and any of the games so far he’d rather keep—”

I pause because my hand has touched a fairly large cylinder. I look into the bag. She looks into the bag. What I have touched looks like an old-style flashlight, just a little bigger, with the wider “light” end capped. The woman starts giggling hysterically and my stomach turns as I realize what I’ve just put my bare fingers on.

The customer turns to my coworker, who has seen none of this.

Customer: “Oh, she knows what that is! She knows what that is.” *To me* “Bet you didn’t expect to see that, huh?”

I am too shocked — and frankly nauseated — to even respond, so I just silently go to the register to ring up the offer we can make on the games, which is only a couple of dollars in the first place. She accepts cheerfully enough, stuffs the DVDs back in the bag, and then heads out laughing. I IMMEDIATELY run to the restroom to wash my hands, and believe me, there is no water in the world hot enough to make them feel clean again. 

When I come back, my coworker is still agog. 

Coworker: “Was that a prank or did she seriously think we’d be interested in her boyfriend’s sex toy?!”

I STILL don’t know the answer to that question.

I used to handle purses and shoes at my local thrift store, and among the various passes and fails of quality check, I’ve found a few gems and a few absolute nightmares.

The worst nightmare purse on record was a beautiful, beaded, white clutch that looked perfect… until I looked inside.

Someone had decided to shove their bloody, used tampon inside at some point, staining the entire inside bottom with menstrual blood.

Then, in a stroke of genius, the person had then splashed some sort of chemical inside the purse. The splash pattern of the poured chemical was clearly visible, and the insides were a creepy patchwork of rusty red and a deep shamrock green!

I was very grateful that I did those inspections with gloves on! It went into the garbage bag immediately.

Related:
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 26
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 25
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 24
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 23
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 22

I worked in cosmetics at a major department store. This store was terrible at getting in enough product every week. We would get two foundations maybe, two powders, etc. So, of course, I was always out of product. It was also one of the only areas that carries several brands of cosmetics for darker skin.

I had a lady come in looking for a shade of foundation I was out of.

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we’re out of that shade right now.”

Customer: *Screaming* “You’re racist! You refuse to sell those shades because you’re racist!”

Then, she tried to grab me from across the counter. When I moved back too far to grab, she tried to SPIT ON ME.

That was the first time I had a customer spit on me. I wish I could say it was the last.

I work in a small corner shop. After a long-ish wait in line, some guy has apparently become so bored that he’s decided to put all his loose change in his mouth.

When it’s his turn, he looks really embarrassed and sheepish when he spits all of it out into his hand. I’m disgusted on various levels.

The only upside is that it is the exact amount.

I was working the concessions stand at a movie theater. I noticed a man walk up to one of the trash cans and pull a large popcorn tub out of it. He looked inside, shook the contents out into the trash, and then approached me with the tub.

Man: “I’d like my free refill.”

Being a teenager that avoided confrontation, I filled the tub, but I made sure I poured the popcorn in without my scoop touching his trash bucket. He walked away happily munching on his ill-gotten corn.