Green Lantern
Member
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2006
- Messages
- 1,665
This afternoon I was eating lunch with my sister-in-law and 4yo nephew outside at the fenced-in play area of a burger joint. It was right across the road from where I work, I was on lunch break. Being on the job, I was not carrying anything more potent than a can of Fox OC (and I don't advertise THAT either)...
While eating, I hear a few curse words being said in the direction of the parking lot of my workplace, coming from a woman. Having seen (more than once) someone cuss out someone else on a cell phone in a very public place, didn't think much of it.
I DO take notice when I hear ANOTHER voice, male, join in in an R-rated exchange. While my SIL is watching my nephew, oblivious, I turn and see three women and a young man arguing in the (busy) adjacent parking lot. Looks like one woman is trying to break up the fight between another woman and the young man/older woman. My sister in law starts to take notice as the solo woman hauls off and "SMACKS the taste" out of the older woman's mouth! The guy yells something lie "you just hit mother, you GD MFing B!"
At this point, SIL comments that maybe I should consider calling the cops - as she stands on a table to get a better view. I pretty well never carry my cell on my person (though it literally just NOW hit me that SHE does). Not wanting to go to THAT parking lot to my car and get it, I head inside the fast-food place to see about getting management to make the call. Being lunchtime, there's more than a few people between me and the staff. I take a moment to see if there are any cops/deputies eating lunch in there (sometimes, but not daily and not today) and head back out.
By then I see the asst. manager at my job and another employee out in the lot talking to the fighters, now separated and two of them leaving in 1 vehicle. Apparently when I went in, the guy actually started BEATING the woman that hit his mom!
A police car comes and only pulls through the parking lot...the remaining "fighters" get in another vehicle and leave...
In the end, looks like something that would be in a "Springer" script. I hope to learn more details of what happened later.
First and foremost, the main thing I see wrong was that I should have gotten my SIL and nephew inside the instant things went physical, if not before. But one caveat to that was the fact that there were two other kids in the 'playground' that were unsupervised. :banghead:
So if I had decided to get inside to be on the safe side, I would have had 3 options:
1) Leave the other kids out there - NO WAY.
2) Try to "coax" them to come inside with me & the others (that would look REAL good y'know....)
3) Go in and yell something to the effect of "hey, whoever - get these kids inside before the nuts in my parking lot start shooting at each other!"
Number 3 might or might not have been appreciated given how things turned out. Though maybe if the parents/whoever saw US coming inside in a hurry, they would realize something was wrong. Being inside the eatery, there was pretty well no way of realizing something was happening over where it was.
Lessons I should learn?
1) Be more PRO-ACTIVE and don't just stand there gawking like an idiot and thinking 'well, the cops will think I'm paranoid if I call them over a little...holy jeez, she just smacked the whizz out of her! Maybe I can get the manager to call the cops! Maybe....maybe...holy cow, there's a lot of people here. Wonder if any cops are eating here today...ET cetera!)
2) Carry the cell with me? Sure, I COULD have run inside and yelled "CALL 911" and 80% of the people inside would have whipped out a phone. But I guess ASSuming that to be the case is like saying "I won't carry today, It's a shall-issue state so if not a cop there's BOUND to be a CCWer around if I run into trouble!"
*************************************************
While I'm at it, I may as well relate ANOTHER thing that happened recently, being as vague as possible for privacy concerns. We have a McPharmacy, aka, a drive-thru window. A week or so ago, a patient brought in a script for a medicine, but the MD had NOT signed it. When the tech told him there would be a delay while we sorted it out with the doc, he became abusive. An older pharmacist stepped in and tried to explain that we COULD fill it, but AFTER we called the MD. All we'd need is his word to fill it right away (as it was something you can't just quit cold turkey) , provided the doc arranged to mail us a script fixed correctly.
I was hammering away at the computer on the OTHER END of the pharmacy when I heard a sound I had never heard before, and I gotta admit it chilled me. Not a scream - a roar. The guy was out of the car and I think quite ready to dive THROUGH the window at the pharmacist!
In an instant, the other pharmacist was there, I was there with my hand in my pocket and my finger on the button of my OC, even the assistant manager doing light duty with a broken collarbone was there. The other pharmacist told the guy we were going to call the police, as the woman driving the car begged him to get back inside. He did, and left.
He went to another pharmacy in town and behaved much the same way. Went to one more after that and apparently realized that his situation was what it was and let the pharmacist there do what he had to do to fill it.
**************************************************
BTW, after the parking lot fight, I was back at work while the chief pharmacist (the guy that said he was going to call the cops on the psychotic DT customer) was poring over some paperwork. Turns out it was our upcoming budget. Turns out that, like in years before, there is exactly $0.00 allotted to our store for "security" purposes.
Though I'm shocked they don't lump in "Loss Prevention" (as in loss of MERCHANDISE to shoplifters, not employees to violence) as security, since that's all the "brass" cares about...
While eating, I hear a few curse words being said in the direction of the parking lot of my workplace, coming from a woman. Having seen (more than once) someone cuss out someone else on a cell phone in a very public place, didn't think much of it.
I DO take notice when I hear ANOTHER voice, male, join in in an R-rated exchange. While my SIL is watching my nephew, oblivious, I turn and see three women and a young man arguing in the (busy) adjacent parking lot. Looks like one woman is trying to break up the fight between another woman and the young man/older woman. My sister in law starts to take notice as the solo woman hauls off and "SMACKS the taste" out of the older woman's mouth! The guy yells something lie "you just hit mother, you GD MFing B!"
At this point, SIL comments that maybe I should consider calling the cops - as she stands on a table to get a better view. I pretty well never carry my cell on my person (though it literally just NOW hit me that SHE does). Not wanting to go to THAT parking lot to my car and get it, I head inside the fast-food place to see about getting management to make the call. Being lunchtime, there's more than a few people between me and the staff. I take a moment to see if there are any cops/deputies eating lunch in there (sometimes, but not daily and not today) and head back out.
By then I see the asst. manager at my job and another employee out in the lot talking to the fighters, now separated and two of them leaving in 1 vehicle. Apparently when I went in, the guy actually started BEATING the woman that hit his mom!
A police car comes and only pulls through the parking lot...the remaining "fighters" get in another vehicle and leave...
In the end, looks like something that would be in a "Springer" script. I hope to learn more details of what happened later.
First and foremost, the main thing I see wrong was that I should have gotten my SIL and nephew inside the instant things went physical, if not before. But one caveat to that was the fact that there were two other kids in the 'playground' that were unsupervised. :banghead:
So if I had decided to get inside to be on the safe side, I would have had 3 options:
1) Leave the other kids out there - NO WAY.
2) Try to "coax" them to come inside with me & the others (that would look REAL good y'know....)
3) Go in and yell something to the effect of "hey, whoever - get these kids inside before the nuts in my parking lot start shooting at each other!"
Number 3 might or might not have been appreciated given how things turned out. Though maybe if the parents/whoever saw US coming inside in a hurry, they would realize something was wrong. Being inside the eatery, there was pretty well no way of realizing something was happening over where it was.
Lessons I should learn?
1) Be more PRO-ACTIVE and don't just stand there gawking like an idiot and thinking 'well, the cops will think I'm paranoid if I call them over a little...holy jeez, she just smacked the whizz out of her! Maybe I can get the manager to call the cops! Maybe....maybe...holy cow, there's a lot of people here. Wonder if any cops are eating here today...ET cetera!)
2) Carry the cell with me? Sure, I COULD have run inside and yelled "CALL 911" and 80% of the people inside would have whipped out a phone. But I guess ASSuming that to be the case is like saying "I won't carry today, It's a shall-issue state so if not a cop there's BOUND to be a CCWer around if I run into trouble!"
*************************************************
While I'm at it, I may as well relate ANOTHER thing that happened recently, being as vague as possible for privacy concerns. We have a McPharmacy, aka, a drive-thru window. A week or so ago, a patient brought in a script for a medicine, but the MD had NOT signed it. When the tech told him there would be a delay while we sorted it out with the doc, he became abusive. An older pharmacist stepped in and tried to explain that we COULD fill it, but AFTER we called the MD. All we'd need is his word to fill it right away (as it was something you can't just quit cold turkey) , provided the doc arranged to mail us a script fixed correctly.
I was hammering away at the computer on the OTHER END of the pharmacy when I heard a sound I had never heard before, and I gotta admit it chilled me. Not a scream - a roar. The guy was out of the car and I think quite ready to dive THROUGH the window at the pharmacist!
In an instant, the other pharmacist was there, I was there with my hand in my pocket and my finger on the button of my OC, even the assistant manager doing light duty with a broken collarbone was there. The other pharmacist told the guy we were going to call the police, as the woman driving the car begged him to get back inside. He did, and left.
He went to another pharmacy in town and behaved much the same way. Went to one more after that and apparently realized that his situation was what it was and let the pharmacist there do what he had to do to fill it.
**************************************************
BTW, after the parking lot fight, I was back at work while the chief pharmacist (the guy that said he was going to call the cops on the psychotic DT customer) was poring over some paperwork. Turns out it was our upcoming budget. Turns out that, like in years before, there is exactly $0.00 allotted to our store for "security" purposes.
Though I'm shocked they don't lump in "Loss Prevention" (as in loss of MERCHANDISE to shoplifters, not employees to violence) as security, since that's all the "brass" cares about...