Ah, Black Friday.

If you’re an American, there’s a good chance you have some kind of thoughts on the unofficial start of the Christmas season.

If you work in retail, the mere mention of it probably causes PTSD.

For this mother and daughter, I’m sure it was a bone of contention for a long, long time.

Check out all of the details below.

a tale of greed, tragedy and karma that will put a smile on your face

It’s Black Friday, 2003 (has it been 10 years already? wow). I’m working as a tech for a Large US Electronics retailer (but everyone works “sales” on Black Friday, right?) and it’s right before the gates open.

I and a few other employees that are not in the departments that will be attacked in the “first wave” have this tradition of lining up against the entrance rails (the chrome things that funnel people in) of the store on BF.

It’s kind of like watching the running of the bulls in Spain for us; it helps you get amped up for what’s going to be a LONG day.

Let the games begin.

So the pep talks have happened, everyone is in place, and the store manager unlocks the inner door and chains. Everyone sort of holds their breath as the outer doors are unlocked and slid open.

The store manager barely has time to hurdle the entrance rails before this mass of people push past us in a frenzy of greed and entitlement.

Towards the front of the pack is a woman (probably mid 40’s) dragging her elderly mother (easily 70 or so) along on her quest for cheap consumer goods.

Then, like a stereotypical action movie, everything suddenly slows down, sounds become muffled and indistinct.

She wasn’t going to slow down for anyone.

We all see the old woman stumble.

We see the terror in her eyes as she trips falls to one knee and lurches forward.

We see her daughter look back over her shoulder at her mother, now in very real danger of being trampled.

The daughter lets… go…

No hesitation in her step, no look of regret in her eyes. Her head snaps forward, intent on her prizes as she merges back into the crowd.

The mother drops to the ground surrounded by chaos and it reminds me of watching Platoon.

At least she was mostly ok.

At this point, we snap back to real-time and myself, two rather large security guys and the manager jump the rail and try to push the mob back through the door so we can get to the old woman.

I end up helping get her off the floor and out of the way while the security guys play riot police and trade insults and (in one case) black eyes with the mob.

We get the woman back to the store office, she’s shaken and scared and a bit bloody due to a split lip and her nose impacting the floor.

Store manager puts a call in to EMS and we try to keep her calm until they arrive.

Yeah, where is her daughter?

She starts asking for her daughter, afraid she might need to go to the hospital, so we start paging overhead and I go out to try and locate her in person.

I’m out looking for 30 minutes or so with no luck, with pages still sounding overhead as I work my way back to the office.

The EMT’s have arrived, and have the woman on a gurney checking her out. Bumps and bruises, but they think she’s fine.

She needs to go be checked over anyways. She doesn’t want to go without her daughter, so they agree to wait a bit longer.

No one knew…at least, not until she was ready to check out.

An hour after the fall the daughter rolls up to customer service, ignoring the huge register lines, with an overflowing cart of product.

She DEMANDS that we check her out immediately so she can tend her injured mother and take her to the emergency room.

She starts ranting immediately about how horrible we all are for caring about money more than her mother’s health.

Customer service chick isn’t having it, I’m not having it, Manager is trying really hard not to let loose on this lady, and the EMT’s are just disgusted.

Not even Mom, as it turns out.

Before any of us can really do anything the tiny little elderly woman, wrapped up in bandages strapped to a gurney looks her daughter square in the eyes and says “FexpletiveK You, daugthers_name” before turning to the EMT’s with “Let’s roll boys”.

Daughter FREAKS out at this, and while her mother is being wheeled towards the entrance she grabs hold of a police officer that was standing nearby (he came in with the EMTs), tearfully demanding he do something about the situation.

Officer Friendly takes one look at her and says “Lady, I’ve heard the whole thing. You can expletive wait in line like everyone else. If you cause any more problems for these people, You’ll be leaving with me.”

What does Reddit think about this whole mess?

Let’s find out!

This situation brought a classic to mind.

If so, I don’t think the mother was in on it.

A Black Friday life hack.

It’s wild no matter where you live.

Ironic is one word for it.

Remember the reason for the season, people!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.