…. On and off
I’ve worked at the Chevron for about 4 years now, and I’ve never been even
remotely threatened. Until tonight.
…. It wasn’t an
outright threat, but I knew what he meant, and yes, this is another panhandler
story.
….
It all started when I was taking the trash out to the dumpster and
this guy asked me if JR* had been by the store. I told him he was just
there and had headed back to the park. He said something about how he was
supposed to meet him here “at his office.” I didn’t say it, but I thought
“Uh, this is our store, not JR’s office.”
….
10 minutes later I was walking out to one of the pumps to clean up
a mess out there and this guy was sitting in front of the store and asked me if
I had any change to spare. I said no, and headed out to clean up the
mess. On the way back in I told him that he couldn’t stay there if he was
going to be hitting customers up for spare change, and he assured me that he
wouldn’t.
….
A few minutes later I watched him hit a customer up for change,
went out there and reminded him that we didn’t allow that at the store. He
mumbled something and walked away.
….
Not much after that I was mopping the floor in front of the store
and heard him ask another customer, he’d moved to the corner of the building to
where he didn’t think we’d notice him.
…. I went out and said “You can leave the property now.” The rest is all paraphrasing, ‘cause I don’t have a photographic
memory.
Him: “Oh, I can leave the property
now?”
Me: “Yeah, goodbye.”
Him “Goodbye.” Doesn’t
move.
Me: “You need to leave the premises
now.”
Him: “I’ll have to look that up
later, p-r-e-m-i-s-e-s.”
Me: “You need to leave now or I’m going
to have to call the police.”
Him: “Oh, you’re going to get the Police,
you mean a concert here?”
Me: “No, police, as in the
cops.”
…. At this point is wasn’t very funny anymore. It was obvious
that he wasn’t just being schizophrenic, he knew what was going on and just
trying to get to me. Fortunately 13 years, and 2 months just recently, of
teaching junior high students kept me calm. But this is where it got
creepy, although I didn’t feel it until a half hour later.
Him: “Can you spell Marilyn
Manson?”
Me: “No. Goodbye. Leave
now.”
Him: “How about Slayer?”
Me: “Yeah, I’m calling the cops
now.”
Him: “F--- You.”
Me: Heads into the store to get the phone.
Him: “F--- You.”
…. I went inside and called the Salt Lake Police, not 911, and told
her who I was, where I was and what had happened. I described him to the
dispatcher, as I headed out the side door, and when she asked me where I last
saw him I told her that he was headed off the property and westbound on 2100
South. She asked me whether or not I still wanted them to send a patrol
car out to look for him and I decided that since he was gone for now that there
was no reason to waste their time on it, but that I just wanted it on record in
case he came around again. She noted that on the record and told me to
call them if he came back.
…. I have to
admit that 20 minutes later or so I started to get this creepy feeling and
became a little anxious to get out of there. I’ll be fine tomorrow – I
don’t work any shifts alone and am usually there only for the busy times, so
there shouldn’t be any problem. But I am happy to be home right
now.
*JR is a regular that has been hanging around the Chevron since
before I even started working there. He is, generally, pretty good at not
bugging the customers, but he does show up quite drunk every now and
then.