Thicker Coat Required

(One of my coworkers has a really beautiful, full-length, black wool coat that’s lined with a very soft faux fur that, despite being fake, feels real. She gets questions about where she got it from our clientele a lot, but she actually made it herself. It is really cold outside.)

Customer: *spotting my co-worker on her way to her lunch break* “Oh. My. God. That coat is gorgeous!”

Coworker: “Oh, thank you.”

Customer: “Give it to me.”

Coworker: “Ma’am, the coat is not for sale.”

Customer: “Bulls***! Everything in this store is! Now give me that jacket! I’m more smarter than you. I know how everything works! If you want something in your store, you can only buy it after us real people are done shopping and only if it’s something we don’t want!”

Coworker: “Um… ma’am, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, but this jacket didn’t come from this store. I made it at home.”

Customer: “No, you didn’t! It’s mine! *tries to snatch the back of the coat as my coworker dodges her*

Coworker: “Ma’am, this is my jacket that I made for myself. We do not sell this jacket in the store, although we have some similar ones. I will not just give you my jacket.

Customer: “It’s mine! Not yours, mine!”

Manager: *to me* “What’s going on?”

Me: *explains*

Manager: *to the customer* “Ma’am, that is my employee’s jacket. It’s not for sale.”

Customer: *stamps her feet and screams* “BUT I WANT IT!”

Manager: “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You can’t have my employee’s jacket. She needs it herself. It’s too cold. If you want a jacket, you can come back another time when you’ve calmed down.”

(She leaves, but comes back about ten minutes later with the police. They have a department on the other side of our parking lot. She points at my manager, my coworker, and me.)

Customer: “Those worthless pieces of trash are trying to steal my jacket!”

(My manager explained the situation, and they took a statement from my coworker, who had proof that she had actually handmade the jacket in the form of a series of photographs on her phone that detailed the ‘work in progress.’ In the end, it was the customer who was arrested for creating a disturbance!)