Working Friday night, the first in what is sure to be a long weekend of costumed customers this weekend. Fortunately I won't be there for all of it, but I can imagine it being quite hectic at times.
Tonight I was working with my co-worker as we often do. Tuesday and Friday nights are our grocery nights, so we are both there to put it away and do what we usually do every night.
This gentleman comes in and he is talking on a wireless headset to someone on the phone. I am not on a drawer tonight, but my co-worker is. He (The gentleman) ignores the small 2 person line that is at the register and asks "Where I am?"
What follows for about 10 minutes is an attempt at dialogue to help this man figure out where he is and where he is trying to get to. A minute or two into it we are very convinced that he is inebriated to an unsafe degree. He cannot stand in one spot, he drops his wallet 3 times, and his car keys once. His speech is quite slurred, both to us and to whoever he is on the phone with. Catching my eye, my co-worker nudges the phone towards me and nods his head subtlety.
The fact that he even made it into the parking lot without damaging anything or anyone is a pure miracle and evidence of a God, evidence that even an atheist would have a hard time disproving.
He heads back towards his car, and we watch to see which side of the car he is going to. Unfortunately he gets in the driver's side. We are concerned for his safety and for the safety of other motorists on the road, especially as this is a time when many 1st shift weekend workers will begin morning commutes.
I make the call, my co-worker keeping an eye locked on his car the entire time. He moves his car to a parking spot on the far side of our lot, nearly hitting my co-workers car 3 different times in a 20 second period. Mind you my co-worker has just has a car accident and bought a new car in the last month. He's a little worried.
Fortunately, five minutes later, the quick responding officers of the Clinton County Sheriff's Department pull in.
We are not sure whether he was waiting for someone to pick him up (which is apparently what happened) or if it was a convenient alibi that worked out while he was talking to the officers, but the bottom line for us is we don't care. We kept a very drunk and dangerous person off the road tonight, and we don't want to even think about what may have happened had we not done anything.
Still, we wish the police officer would have come into the store and said something to us. I think we deserve some type of communication in regards to the situation we called them to in the first place, but what do I know? Sure will make the paperwork easier, but they have their system and I trust them, I suppose.
That was the most interesting occurrence of a crazy night. You can tell it's Halloween, as the costume parties have started. You think about all the issues that come out of women who want to be respected, women who want men to see them as more then a piece of meat to be mauled. Then you see the costumes we saw last night, and you wonder why they are shooting their cause in the foot.
Next shift is Sunday night. Halloween. No plans to dress up.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
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