Crazy work stories

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I've worked for the same company for 18 years, starting when I was 14, (besides being briefly laid off for 4 months in 2004) I have held every job position in the company, from team member to now District manager. I've had 8 locations at one time, but am now down to 7. In this time I've had some real crazy stories from work:)

My first work Christmas party, I was 15 and the youngest at the store, most ladies were in their mid 40's, and we had 2 girls in their 20's, my mom was the manager and was 45. We went to Chi Chi's. We had reservations, but where we were seated we didn't get a waitress for more then a half hour. So someone complained and we got a ton of free appetizers and the ladies started drinking...well 2 hours later, I'm stuck with a bunch of drunk old ladies...we go out to the parking lot when we are done and someones tire was flat, another girls car was broken into and it snowed 6 inches...so after waiting for a tow truck and police car, we ended up driving everyone home. It was a long funny night.

I had a lady complain about me to my manager (my Mom) because when I put a pretzel on the counter it slid to her an inch or 2, she got all pissy and said "did you just throw this pretzel at me?" I said "no mam, if I was to throw a pretzel at you, it would NOT have hit the counter..." that didn't go over too well...(this was in the beginning, I sure did have a lot to learn about Customer service)



There was a guy walking in the mall throwing the little firecracker like pops all over the floor and laughing when people jumped. This guy was in his 40's with his kids...thinking this was the funniest thing in the world. So I point to this guy and tell my co-worker, and a lady buying a pop, "look at this idiot throwing pops on the floor" well the lady at the counter gets all mad and says, " that idiot is my husband, you can keep your pop!" oops! yea security had to be called the guy came over and went off on me like a nut!

We have had a seagull in the ceiling of our backroom, and scared the crap out of the poor worker who found him.

A couple of my employees waited on a younger couple with a 3 or 4 year with them. They both smelled like liquor, were slurring, and basically drunk! They sat out in front of the store at the tables and one of them fell over, and they started cracking up laughing...the called security and then the cops, and they were both arrested for Child endangerment.

We had a baby squirrel get stuck behind a filing cabinet, in a back room, it made the weirdest noises...and when someone went to get stock, heard it and came up to store saying there was an alien in the back room...we fed him Pretzels until animal control got there:)

I once had a customer call me, and tell me they were walking by the stand and their new leather coat got caught on the corner of a counter and they wanted us to pay for a new one! oh yea, your a klutz so lets get you a new coat!

My brother used to call and prank the store I worked at, saying things like, I gave my dog a bite of my pretzel and he just keeled over and died...he was crying over the phone and hysterical, and he had us all convinced for an hour or so...I almost called my District manager at the time, I would have killed him!

It was always fun during the busy Christmas season to bring stock up from the backroom with a big 5 foot cart stacked high with stuff, I've ran into so many people who don't pay attention, had people fall onto the empty cart, and also little kids just jump on for a ride and think its funny.

When I got promoted and moved over to manage another store 5 miles away, my new store and my old store were very close, shared workers, and had a couple family members and friends working with us. Also my mom was still manager at the old store, so once when I knew she was having a meeting before the mall opened, my store snuck up on them and bombed them all with silly string. It was so funny to see them all sitting in the middle of the mall with a ton a silly string on them!

I've had a customer dump a pop on my workers head...that got ugly quick.

I had a man and his 18ish year old daughter walk up, the daughter orders a red cherry slush...in the most high pitched annoying voice possible...OK Barbie, we have white cherry slush, not red..."oh whats the difference between the Red and the White cherry, (even more high pitched then the before) in my most impatient, overly friendly voice I say "...ummm The Color???" Her Dad says...are you being a smart ass??? of coarse not!!!


I've had to fire and entire crew 3 different times at 3 different stores. The most being 12 people in one day. Its not fun starting over, but definitely needed in some situations.

I had a lady try to pay with a fake $5 bill, it looked weird so I checked it with our counterfeit pen, she grabbed the fake bill and ran!

I've caught so many people stealing its unreal, from the young kid, to the old grandma type...I've spied on stores and have seen so much food being given away to friends and family...one time an employee not working came up with 15 people and started giving out food and drink to all of them...

Last Christmas while working at my busiest store...2 old ladies were standing out of line in front of the stand looking up at the menu for 5 minutes. Then they wanted to order from where they were standing, there was 10 people in line, so I pointed to the line and said sorry ladies the line is over there, when they finally got up to the counter to order, they ordered 2 hot dogs, fries and coffee...we don't sell any of these mam, did you want a Pretzel/nachos/pop/slush?? they say...oh no, we're looking for the hot dog place, and left.


In one of my malls there was a kids play area right in front of our stand. Time after time, parents just leave their kids there and take off and go shopping. One time, this little girl gets hurt and another parent brings her over to us and asks us to call security. We give her a slush, and pretzels and wait for them to come down. In the mean time, the Mom comes up, grabs the kid, starts walking away, and starts yelling at her because she got hurt...and then we hear her say, I'm trying to get some shopping done Damn it! NICE!

There is the regular customer in one of my malls, who asks for 5 ice cubes ONLY! and wants to check and make sure before you pour her pop!

I had a new employee who forgot his keys to open the store, when I showed up a couple hours later, there were a couple cupboards off the hinges, and some major damage to the money cupboard. I walked in shocked and asked what happened...he said well I forgot my keys so I decided to just break into the store instead of going home to get them! yea he didn't work with us long. geeeez!

Thanksgiving is a week away...I can't wait to get more stories from my stores! Never a dull moment.