It's true! It happened this past Wednesday, and here's what happened.
I was innocently perusing the comic store shelves when someone, a customer (not an employee) who I will forever call Crazy Guy, started saying something. I'm not quite sure what, and I didn't think he was talking to me at first, when all of a sudden, he pushes me in my face (it may have been an outright punch, but I don't think so) and starts shouting profanities (I'll f*** you up mother f*****! blah blah blah). I think it had something to do with me picking up some book he had been looking at or something, I don't know what. Being scared shitless, I ran to another part of the store while Crazy Guy kept going off. The girl at the cash register, scared herself, was pleading him to calm down. He then shouts that he wants to pay for his stuff, which the cashier readily did ahead of people in line just to get rid of him. He pays for his stuff (how do crazy people get to have money?) then storms out of the store threatening to wait for me outside.
The store manager, who had been outside for most of the incident, unaware to what was happening until he came back in, told me that I had a scratch on my face from Crazy Guy (who still had comics in his hands when he hit me) and allowed me to use the employee bathroom to wash up. I go in and look at my face and sure enough, there is a scratch across my left cheek and part of my nose (which remains as I write this two days later; I'll post a photo this weekend if I get a chance). Once finished, I waited inside the store for awhile longer in case Crazy Guy was indeed waiting for me (he wasn't). The manager (who offered me 50% off any purchase I was making, but I didn't buy anything) took a look outside, saw the coast was clear, and back to work I went, eyes wide open and taking a different route back to my office.
And that's what happened. Should I have handled things differently? Should the store have handled things differently?
Be careful when you're in the big city, folks. You might get assaulted by Crazy Guy.
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6 comments:
Did he pay cash or debit? You should have called the cops, filed a report, and they could have gotten his name off the receipts. File an assault charge. Screw that guy, make him pay.
Whoa! That is a crazy story. I think the store should have called the cops since he assaulted you. Maybe it all happened too quickly?
It happened very quickly, and he was gone by the time cops would have showed up. The store only accepts cash.
This wasn't your typical comic geek gone bad either. He was very likely mentally ill or high, perhaps both.
Actually pursuing charges isn't the worst idea, since he's clearly off his meds or some other way Impaired. Sorry, though...beating him up wouldn't've helped matters, and the shop folks should probably have called the police, indeed, just because this guy might've decided to go haphazardly berserk on someone more defenseless than you or the woman at the register.
I've worked enough retail to have dealt with crazies not quite as personally aggressive as that, but close enough...only one who got rowdy enough to break someone else's skin, however (and one of my more aggressive colleagues on the spot [I was in my office at the time] took him down quickly, and we kept him for the cops). These were in the 'burbs, by the way...Crazy Folk go where they will.
Filing a report with the store staff wouldn't be the worst idea, even now.
I am not a violent person, but I wanted to hurt this man. He hit my husband! More than that- the store sucks for allowing him to make a purchase. The safety of all of the customers should have been top priority, not a sale! Babe, next time dial 9-1-1!!!!
Amen wifey! Testify!
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