I’m at the registers. I’ve just been told to take my lunch, so I finish with my customer and sign off my register. I take two steps away when a customer starts unloading a cart FULL of stuff.

Customer: “Where are you going?!”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but I have to go to lunch.”

Customer: “No, you’re going to serve me!”

Me: “I can’t, unfortunately, but it looks like [Coworker] can ring you out one register down!”

Customer: “No! I want you to ring me out!”

Me: “I have to go clock out, ma’am.”

My coworker tells me to just go clock out for lunch. I have to pass the customer to do so. When I go to pass her, she GRABS my arm and refuses to let go.

Customer: “YOU WILL SERVE ME NOW!”

Coworker: “[Manager] to the front!”

I try pulling away, but the customer has a death grip on my arm. My manager comes up.

Manager: “Ma’am, let go of my employee!”

Customer: “SHE’S REFUSING TO SERVE ME!”

Manager: “If you don’t let go, I will call the police.”

The customer refuses. There’s a line behind her, and they all look stunned at the situation. My manager pulls out her phone and dials the police.

Manager: “Yeah, we’ve got a customer assaulting an employee—”

Customer: “NO! I’M MAKING SURE SHE DOES HER JOB AND SERVES ME!”

I am stuck there, arm in a death grip, until a couple of cops come by. They end up arresting her. As she’s being walked out…

Customer: “SHE’S SUPPOSED TO SERVE ME!”

Manager: “You wanna go home early?”

Me: “I don’t get paid enough for s*** like that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I ended up getting the next day off.

A mother and her two young sons come in. Unfortunately, “Mommy” is more concerned with shopping than with her children’s safety. At most department stores, this one included, there are long metal poles with curves on the ends to take hangers with clothing off of high racks. These two boys have each taken one of the poles and are using them to sword fight.

I approach the boys and take away the “toys.” They are a few feet away from their mother.

Me: “I’m sorry, gentlemen, but you cannot play in this store; it is dangerous and rude. Furthermore, customers and employees here need to use these poles; they are not toys.”

Immediately, their mother starts swearing loudly and screaming at me about how I can’t tell her how to raise her children.

Me: “Ma’am, I don’t really care how you raise your children. I’m merely following store policy and we can’t have anyone using the store or our property like a playground.”

Customer: “I want to see your manager! You’re going to lose your job!”

Me: *Calmly* “My manager asked me to stop your children from using these to hurt themselves and other customers, but if you’d like to speak with her, please follow me; she’s right at the cash stand.”  

The customer follows me to my manager, swearing loudly the whole time. My manager listens to the customer.

Customer: “She grabbed my children and shook them and then called me a bad mother just because my sons were being a little loud! You need to fire this b**** immediately!”

My manager, who had heard and seen the whole incident from only about ten feet away, calmly repeated store policy and told the customer she was mistaken about me touching her children. When the customer threatened to sue, my manager explained again, very calmly, that the incident had been filmed by multiple cameras.

Suddenly, the customer walked off to shop some more.

A few minutes later, in another department, a coworker caught the boys playing with metal bars they had broken off a display rack. She took them away and went back to work because it was busy.

Apparently, the boys either found the same metal bars or broke another display rack to duel each other. I found the one passed/knocked out under a clothing rack in a nearby department with blood coming out of his ears because his brother had hit him too hard over the head with a metal bar and was afraid to tell anyone.

My manager called an ambulance and the police. It was several hours before the police found the mother. She had left the store with her purchases and the one child to do more shopping in the rest of the mall. She didn’t even notice her other son was gone!

My workplace is situated in an outdoor arcade with shops down each side and stalls in the middle. I have been frequenting a stall close to my shop for years, buying drinks and chatting with the owner on my lunch breaks. I am smoking a cigarette as I buy a drink.

Owner: “Busy today?”

Me: “Nah, pretty quiet.”

Owner: “We’ve had a few through. Here you go, that’ll be $2.”

Me: “Thank—”

Just as I am handing my money over, something from behind me hits me in the face and knocks off my glasses. Then, I feel a whack across my wrist, causing me to drop my cigarette.

Lady: *Screeching* “You’re disgusting! Disgusting filthy smoker!”

An old lady has whacked me in the face with her walking stick!

Owner: “Hey!”

The owner reaches over the counter and snatches the lady’s walking stick right out of her hands.

Lady: “That’s mine! Give it back.”

Owner: “Not a chance. I’ve told you before about bothering people around here. I’m keeping it this time. Now, get lost before I call the cops and have them book you for assault!”

The lady grumbled a bit and left without her stick. It turns out that she regularly bothers smokers in the area, hitting them with her stick and slapping “No Smoking” stickers on their faces and in their hair. This wasn’t even the first time the owner had taken her stick away!

I gave the owner a big tip and we’ve joked about the crazy No Smoking Lady ever since.

I just started as a lifeguard two weeks ago. I am still a tad nervous about certain rules. My boss says, “Go with your gut instinct. If you’re not comfortable, blow the whistle and stop it.”

I am in the office making phone calls about swim lessons when one of the guards needs to go home. I am to cover her once she leaves. As she comes in, she explains how these certain brothers, about the ages of ten to fourteen, are coming in. They are regulars but they are notorious troublemakers. She warns me that they are a handful and wishes me luck. I mark each boy with a colored marker, which designates how deep they are allowed to swim, and they jump in.

At first, they are pretty easy going. They are shooting hoops at the small basketball net we have. Soon, they start to hang on the rim of the net, which it states clearly in big, bold letters, “Do NOT hang on the rim/net.” I blow my whistle. 

Me: “Hey, guys, please don’t hang on the net. It could fall on you or it could break.” 

Boy #1: “Tsk…” 

I am ignored by the other. Then, they find the small beach balls and start to whip them at each other, especially in the face. There is another family in the open swim area, as well, two parents and their two young children. They occasionally get hit with the ball, too, and get annoyed. I walk over to the edge of the pool.

Me: “Guys, you can throw and catch the balls, but please be respectful of other members.”

Boy #2: “Okay. Hey, let’s go down to the deep end.” 

Boy #1: “Yeah, sounds good.”

I’m thinking by now, “Awesome. I got them to still have fun but keep the other people happy, too.”

Haha, no.

From here, they decide to race across the pool deck and median whipping balls at each other. 

First off, the median is for lifeguards only. It’s the small strip of wall that allows us to walk in between the kiddy pool/shallow end and the lap pool. Second, there is no running on the deck. Period.

These two are all over the place, jumping over the wall and the railing, sliding under the netting, jumping and running on everything. The other guard that was on with me blows her whistle a few times; they just ignore it. Same with me.

Me: “Guys! You need to stop right now. No running on the deck; you can slip and hurt yourself. If you don’t stop, you will be asked to leave immediately.” 

Boy #1: “Whatever.”

They ignore me and continue it. I’m getting so frustrated because I’m still a newbie and I’m still unsure of myself. I don’t want to be the bad guy, but I finally psyche myself up enough courage to say they need to leave. Just as I am about to, the eldest brother throws a ball right into his little brother’s face, and then proceeds to slip on the pool deck. I rush down to help him.

Me: “Are you okay?! This is why you need to follow the pool rules; people get hurt.”

He’d scraped his knee and elbows on the tiles. He grabbed his brother and they ran away, embarrassed and angry. I heard them curse a few times while storming out.

I have seen them back once, but they couldn’t swim because the swim team was using the pool.

Worst part is, I’ve heard from my boss they still keep ignoring the rules and that wasn’t the first time they’d hurt themselves.

Related:
Pooling Together All The Bad Behavior

I’m an assistant manager at a supermarket. There are two others there, as well, and only two are needed at customer service, so I help out with bagging. The cashier is new and somewhat inexperienced. If a customer comes up with a bag of bread that they’ve selected themselves, we’re either supposed to count them if it’s a small number, or ask them how many there are, and if it looks reasonable, we take them at their word.

Cashier: “Hello! How are you, ma’am?”

Customer: “Fine, thanks.”

The cashier starts scanning items and comes to a bag of bread.

Cashier: “How many?”

Customer: “Six.”

The cashier puts six into the transaction, but with the bag as big as it is, I know there’s no way it could only contain six. I pull the clear bag out of the brown bag and quickly count them after she sends the bag down my way. I count fifteen.

Me: “[Cashier], it’s fifteen, not six.”

She turns to me because she didn’t hear, so I repeat it. The customer gives me a dirty look.

Customer: “That’s not right.”

Me: “There were fifteen breads; you said there were only six.”

Customer: “I know, but that’s not right.”

Me: “What’s not right?”

Customer: “You make it look like I’m trying to steal.”

Me: “Ma’am, she asked how many breads there were, and you deliberately said that there were a lot fewer than there actually are.”

Customer: “I don’t care. Get me your manager!”

My manager was nearby in the customer service area, so I went to get her. As I walked through the door and explained it to her, the customer barged through the door, like she was going to attack me or something. The owner, a huge, over-six-feet-tall bald man, grabbed her and pinned her to the ground while I called the police. She ranted and raved, but since we had the security footage, she was escorted out by the cops.