The Best Thing You Can Give Someone Looking For A Fight Is Walking Away

I work at a theater. As is standard, a little while after the last movie goes in, we close down the stand for the night and lock the doors, which makes them one-way; people can leave, but can’t enter.

We’ve been closed for about thirty-five minutes, and by this point, the concession stand is totally closed down, there’s no money in the registers and they’ve been turned off, we’re in the middle of sweeping and mopping, and we are going to leave soon. We keep a little extra popcorn on hand for refills, but that’s it. We literally can’t sell anything.

A group of men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five show up outside and knock. I go to the door.

Me: “Do you already have tickets?”

They do, so I let them in. If they already have tickets, we let people in because sometimes they’re just running late. I send our ticket-taker back to the greeter stand to scan them in.

The group proceeds to the greeter stand, and the oldest guy, who seems to be in charge, is immediately and needlessly aggressive and rude to our ticket-taker, who has special needs. He does this weird little “lunge” thing with his neck to scare her and then points his finger literally right in her face.

Customer: “Sweep the floor!”

Then, he laughs incredibly loud and walks to his theater.

A few minutes later, he and several of his friends come out and go into the bathroom. They’re in there for a while, and when they come out, it’s obvious that they did drugs in there. The oldest guy is sniffling quite a bit like there’s something in his nose, his eyes are practically bugging out of his head, he seems very tensed up, and he’s wavering quite badly while he walks.

A coworker pulls out their phone and ducks into the back, ready to call the cops if they start acting up. The oldest guy immediately walks up to me. I’m already angry at the way he treated my coworker, and I’m even angrier that he’s doing drugs, so I’m blunt. He’s also bordering on shouting the entire time.

Customer: “Popcorn!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but we’re closed. I can’t sell anything.”

Customer: “Then what’s that?!”

He points to the small amount of popcorn we have for refills, which is just barely visible in the back.

Me: “That’s for refills for people who bought popcorn before we closed.”

Customer: *Becoming aggressive* “Sell it to me! Now!”

Me: “Sorry, but no. The registers are turned off.”

Customer: “That just means you can’t take cards. I got cash money right now!”

Me: “No, it means the registers are completely off and empty. I can’t accept any transactions, cash or card, nor would I be able to give you change.”

Customer: “F****** white boy here won’t sell me popcorn when I got cash money?!“

For the sake of context, this customer and his friends are Black.

Me: “As I said, we’re closed and the registers are off. I literally could not sell you anything even if I wanted to.”

The conversation continues for about thirty seconds with us going in circles; he demands popcorn, and I keep saying “No.” Finally, he gets really mad.

Customer: “How about this? How about I put your f****** picture online and say you’re a racist-a** white boy who called me a [racial slur]?! I could destroy your whole life!”

Me: “I’m not continuing this conversation. Especially after you scared my coworker.”

I say nothing else; I just turn and walk away, leaving him flabbergasted.

Customer: *Screaming after me.* “What do you mean, you’re not continuing this conversation?! Don’t you f****** dare walk away from me, white boy! Racist! F****** racist! Racist-a** slave-master! Slave-master f***!”

He stands there shouting. I go talk to a manager. The manager comes out and tells the men that they can either leave peacefully WITHOUT a refund or we’ll call the cops and have them physically kicked out and press trespassing charges. They choose to leave and go get the rest of their group from the theater. As they leave, the leader decides to continue his little rant.

Customer: “F****** [slur for white people]s! All of you are racist! I ain’t no slave for the master! You’re all just racist-a** slave-master f***s! I’m gonna go online and destroy your lives! Expose your racist-a** slave-master a**es! F*** all you racist [slur for white people]s!”

They finally left.

We did call the cops regardless since they were doing drugs, but they left before the cops could get there. Just to make it even funnier, the guy called back a few days later and tried to say they were unfairly kicked out and asked if they could get refunds. They were not given refunds, and we alerted corporate to the situation so they wouldn’t get refunds if they tried to lie to our corporate office.