I work at a store franchise as a cashier, among other small jobs around the store. I open the store relatively often or at least work early in the morning. We hire a cleaning company to clean the store with their industrial equipment, and they are also employed by a few other large franchises to clean. To avoid doing it in front of customers, they come in the middle of the night, and they have their own key and alarm code to enter.

One day, a coworker and I are talking about how all the jewelry in our display sold — about $3,000 worth — and we are wondering who bought that much jewelry.

Turns out, our store cleaners were caught on camera stealing the jewelry in the middle of the night! At least $3,000 worth! On top of that, we realized they have been stealing for years! So now, there are years’ worth of camera footage to look through to calculate how much they actually ended up stealing, as my company is suing them.

I’m assuming if it adds up to more than $5,000 worth of product, they will also be going to jail for theft over $5,000. Also, of course, our company has informed their other employers, so it is more than likely that they have lost all their contracts. And who knows if they were stealing from them, as well?

I wasn’t at work when this happened but received a text with a woman’s picture and a note that she is banned from the store. I get to work the next day and hear the full story.

Our employees-only bathroom is in the back room, along with employee lockers and all overstock. Therefore, we don’t have a public restroom. We are in a strip shopping center with a grocery store, two restaurants, and a few other stores, so when a customer asks to use the restroom, we tell them the locations of other public restrooms in the center.

In our back room, we have an area under the sink with a faucet about two feet off the floor with a small retaining wall on the floor surrounding a drain hole in the floor. This is used to fill up our mop bucket.

A woman approached the cashier.

Woman: “Where is your restroom?”

Coworker #1: “I’m sorry, but we don’t have one.”

Woman: “Let me use the employee restroom, then.”

My coworker then explained why she couldn’t use that one. She said fine and went about her shopping. The woman paid for a couple of things and left.

Another employee came up to the register, wide-eyed and mouth agape.

Coworker #2: “I was in the back taking my break when this woman came into the back room, tried the restroom door, and then proceeded to drop her shorts, squat over the drain, and pee! She grabbed some paper towels, wiped, and went on her merry way. I was in too much shock to say anything to her!”

They poured an entire bottle of bleach in the drain and mopped up around it. The next day, the manager went to a big box store to buy another mop bucket and mop.

When I was in my late teens, I was a programmer for a huge aerospace firm. The parking lot alone was the size of the lot for a mid-sized shopping mall. When I was leaving work one day, I realized that my car keys were missing. The keychain on it was unique: a long strip of some furry animal skin. I checked with security and nobody had turned in any keys. Security contacted a locksmith for me and he got me in my car and made a replacement key. It cost me quite a bit, but I wised up and duplicated the key, plus copies of my other keys, so I had spares… just in case.

“Just in case” was nearly a year later. I knew I could call my dad and have him bring me spares, but I figured I’d check with security first.

Me: “Hi. Did you have any keys turned in today?”

Guard: “Oh, yes. We just had these turned in today.”

He reached in the lost and found box, and I could tell at a glance as he pulled it out that it was mine. It was the furry-tailed set of keys I lost the year before. The set I lost that day never turned up. So weird.

My boyfriend’s niece is five. She is extremely shy with strangers. With people she already knows and feels good with, she’s a never-ending chatterbox, but with a stranger, she will hide her face. One way her family is trying to encourage her is by letting her pay at the counter if she wants something.

In this instance, my boyfriend and I are shopping with [Niece], and she asks for a doll. We get in line, and by the time we’re next, no one else has gotten in line. My boyfriend decides to take the chance to try to get her to pay by herself. He gives her the money and we step out of the line section, but we stay behind as we watch her slowly walk up to the cashier.

Niece: *Softly* “Hi. Can I buy this?”

The cashier puts on a big smile and speaks in a cheerful voice.

Cashier: “Yes, you can, dear. May I have it so I can ring it up?”

[Niece] hands over the doll. Before anything else can happen, another customer runs up to the same counter and SHOVES our niece aside!

Rude Customer: “Excuse me!”

This customer shoves her hard enough for her to fall over. She starts crying her eyes out. My boyfriend and I hurry up to comfort her. I am too focused on her to hear what the cashier says to the rude customer, but the manager comes over to deal with the customer while the cashier apologizes to us for what happened. I pay for the doll while my boyfriend takes our niece outside to calm down.

Me: “What was that about?! What did that lady want so bad that she had to push a kid?”

Cashier: “That lady comes in all the time and complains about something. She’s nasty to us and other customers, but corporate won’t let us ban her.”

Me: “Why?”

Cashier: *Shrugs* “Beats me. I’m sorry about your niece. I knew what you were doing. My oldest was very shy when he was small, and I did the same thing when we were in a store. I always try to be patient when I see kids come up alone.”

Me: “Well, that lady probably killed any progress my niece made.”

Cashier: “Just keep doing it. She’ll get better. My oldest is thirteen now. You’d never guess he used to be a shy little boy!”

Outside, my niece calmed down and was happy to get her doll. It was about a month before she would go up to the counter alone again. She is ten years old now, and we have the opposite problem! Now, she’s fearless and sassy, and we have to tell her she cannot immediately go off on her own with any new friend she meets!

I have just started my new job as a librarian. It’s our holiday party and I’m sitting with a few coworkers. I don’t remember what we are talking about, but one of my only coworkers close to my age sits next to me and I do remember what she says next.

Coworker: “So, I was reading about consensual cannibalism…”