A prostitute, a drunken John and a Burger flipper walk into Country Style… sounds like a bad joke

UGH! I’m so pissed off… and I’m still shaken. I don’t understand how the boss thinks it is safe to have ONE person working 6pm-12am. Seriously???? I understand that he’s going under and trying to save money. I understand that we’re not busy. I really do. But what gives him the right to put that person’s life at risk? Yes, nothing serious has happened but it could have. The Country Style I work for is in South Oshawa. Most of you won’t know where that is but some of you who live by Toronto would. It’s by GM… and isn’t the safest of areas, known for it’s prostitutes, druggies/alcoholics, some murders. Like the 19 yr old that stabbed his brother to death right down the road from where I live. Fine, I deal with it, I stay in at night. But 4 or 5 days a week I work the 6pm-12am shift. Alone.

Tonight was actually quite busy after 9pm. I was constantly running around. At 10:40ish or something, a woman comes stumbling in and immediately asks me to call her a cab. Ok… not an odd request so I go do it. I come out to see her sitting across from a regular, elbows bleeding as she tells them about how some guy tried to rob her and all she got out of it was cuts and scratches on her elbows. So I go get some napkins and bandaids. I’m trying to be nice when we all know she’s a call girl. At this point it was just me and the two regulars (Paul and Wayne). No one else in the store.

Now, you have to realize that the Country Style I work at is next door pretty much to Mr Burger, ok?

So it isn’t long after this woman stumbles in and sits in front of Wayne at his booth (Paul standing by the swinging door to get behind the counter, behind Wayne), when two men come storming in, one heading straight for the phone, the other instantly grabbing this woman, screaming that she stole his money. I don’t find out til later that the guy at the phone was a burger flipper at Mr Burger where this all began in his parkinglot apparently. So here I am, wondering what the heck to do.

Do I intervene? Do I tell them to calm down? What if he has a weapon?

I’m terrified. I won’t lie. I’m a country small town girl. He’s yelling and she’s yelling that she doesn’t have his money. He grabs her by the hair and she’s hitting him to get him off her. I don’t know what to do. He won’t let her go, blocking her way completely, pushing her back into the booth when she tries to leave.

What does she do?

She undoes her pants. Yes… her pants where she wasn’t wearing a stitch and pulls out a five dollar bill and tells him that’s all she has. Yeah… right. I don’t know who to believe or care. But sticking money up there doesn’t impress me. SO what does HE do? Pins her and sticks HIS hand down her pants. Finds a balled up pair of underwear and throws it to the ground. What was he wearing you might ask? No shirt… pants undone with nothing on either under.

WTF?!

I’m freaking out and just about to yell at him to get his hands off her. Wayne looks over at me with wide eyes and shakes his head, telling me not to say anything. They were both bigger than me. I’m small. 5’3, 103lbs. I couldn’t have taken them if he freaked and went at me (which is why I’m glad Wayne and Paul were there). Again, he could have had a knife. I didn’t know.

At this point, the cab shows up. He’s yelling that she isn’t going anywhere. Somehow, she pushes past him and rushes out the door. He’s following after and the cab driver knows better. He doesn’t let her in. Not when she’s knocking at the windows and trying all doors. He drives up and turns around, parks at a stop light. Not sure if the guy gives up or what but somehow she gets in and the cab takes off.

Well he’s pissed. He comes back and his friend tells him to talk to the cops on the phone. There’s blood on the table. Underwear on the ground. It’s over. I hope.

Well they go outside, the two pair, where I guess they began to argue. I was trying to regain my senses and figure out what the hell to do. It happened fast. I didn’t even think about calling 911 and maybe I should have. If I’m alone I would have. But I also would have had to deal with it alone.

Anyway, the two take off in a van because they are annoyed that the cops aren’t there yet. 10 minutes later, the cops show up and who has to tell them everything? Me. And I don’t even understand it. Two cop cars. They show up for maybe 5 minutes then take off.

UGH!

I was shaking. And I guess I looked terrified because Wayne made the comment about how it’s over and to relax. Um… when it’s all locked up I will. Because they could come back. I didn’t know. I just know I’m so angry because there’s only one person on this shift. There should be two. But no. So I wrote him saying if he doesn’t change things, we’re going to call the labour board because the cameras as he tells us, will NOT protect us. Is he sitting at the screen all night, watching from home the cameras? No. So how can it protect us?

Uh duh… dunce cap please!

“Hello, Country Style… Melanie speaking…”

That one sentence may not seem amusing to you.  Now put it in this context… you’re calling McGraw-Hill, looking for a person and you hear that.  Yes… yes I so did.  At my day job at McGraw and what do I do?  I answer the phone like I would if I were at Country Style. *face palm*