When working in a home improvement store, tempers can get hot when it is especially busy and customers have to wait.

When the worker in this story tried to get by a customer with a large load of sheet rock, the customer actually pushed the sheet rock off of the cart, severely injuring another customer.

To make matters worse, when he tried to leave, the cops stopped him and he took a swing at an officer, landing himself in jail.

The day I a customer broke another customers ankle and took a swing at a cop.

I have successfully made it out of retail (and you can too!). So, this story is from my days of being in the trenches against the dreaded evil idiot customers while working at the Big Box Orange Home Improvement Store.

This takes place a long time ago.

This was back in 2003 or 2004, in the East Bay Area in Northern California. It is right in the huge explosion of the housing boom and people are buying up houses like it’s the end of the world.

With this comes the major renovations and people cannot give us their money fast enough for paint, plants, and other household project materials. So, weekends were always busy.

Wow, what a nightmare.

Open at 6 am and close at 10 pm and it was absolute nonstop from open to close. People would even bang on the doors before we opened and after we closed pissed off because they forgot “just one thing”.

Luckily my manager at the time was didn’t take anything from anyone. ZERO.

What a great manager.

You treat an employee poorly?! GET OUT!.

He was also very demanding of his employees and with that we had only the best who could hang and we worked like a well-oiled machine.

Anyways, back to the story.

People love home improvements over the 4th of July.

It was 4th of July weekend. Our busiest weekend of the year by far. We were swamped and had a bunch of employees call out “sick” because the weather could not have been better and the boating and adult beverages on the Delta waterways were calling everyone’s names.

Well, this sounds very entertaining.

So, this is the story of how I had to be physically restrained by my boss and a man was arrested for breaking a little old ladies ankle and swinging a punch at a cop.

It was the Saturday of the weekend, about 11 am. I started at 4 am to prepare and help out my boss since everyone in my department but one other guy called in “sick.” So, it’s 11 am and we’re SWAMPED.

You can only do one thing at a time.

I’m running around the lumber and building materials section like a chicken with its head off. I should mention that I hadn’t eaten since I got there, which was only a Clif Bar on my drive to work, so I was starving.

When I get hungry, my mind goes into weird places and I get beyond testy.

This is not going to go well.

So, I’m waiting for my coworker to show up so I can head to lunch and he’s running late. One hour goes by. Then two. He finally shows up at 1:30.

I’m beyond starving at this point. I’m exhausted. I’ve had every upset customer ask why I can’t pull any retail clones out of thin air. I’ve explained to too many customers that no, I cannot go and install your fence after I’m off.

This worker is clearly very dedicated.

So, I’m heading back just to shovel as much food as I can in less than 10 minutes so I can get back and help out.

I’m on my way back and an assistant manager yells at me “This guy has been waiting for his stack of sheetrock for over an hour!!”

No surprise, the customer is likely lying.

Now, I had been in that department for 10 hours, I have never seen this guy yet, and he looks beyond annoyed. So I apologize and tell him I’ll grab someone with a forklift

(oh did I mention that they would not train me on the forklift yet? Cuz they wouldn’t. They said I wasn’t ready for that yet. Even though I had 3 years warehouse experience before I was hired on there so I knew how to drive a forklift).

I bet you can guess where this is going. That right, no one is available to run the forklift. Fantastic.

Everyone has to pull together to meet the customer demand.

So, I grab someone in tool rental and as fast as we can, load an entire stack of sheetrock onto a cart. 48 sheets of 1/2 inch thick, 4×8 sheetrock in under 3 minutes.

We were drenched in sweat and exhausted. Not looking forward to loading into this guy’s truck, but he was understanding at least.

Things just keep going wrong.

So, me and the other guy are straining to push this to the front of the store. Then we hit a road block. Everyone was waiting in line and each line was 10+ people long. So enter angry construction worker (will be known as AH from now on). The following exchange happens between us:

Me: Excuse me sir, we just need to sneak buy to load this man’s truck.

Wow, what a jerk.

AH: NO! **** OFF! GO AROUND!!

Me: Sir, we just need to get by, it’s not logical for us to go all the way around an aisle to get out of the store, if you could just back up a few feet…

AH: (Interrupting) I SAID NO!! **** OFF!! GO AROUND!! I’VE BEEN WAITING IN LINE FOR OVER 10 MINUTES!! THIS IS WRONG!! ****. OFF!!!

Way to stand up for yourself!

Me: SIR! I am not going to ask you again, please move so we can get by!

AH: You’re gonna have to move me. Go ahead and try!!

Fine, I guess they can’t run him over.

At this point, I was drained. I had little to no fight left in me. So, my coworker saw I was at the end of my rope and said “hey man lets just go around.”

So, we high tail it around saying to each other how much of a jerk that guy was.

What? That is crazy, and dangerous.

We get close to the front door, and right as soon as we get next to him he uses his entire large body to throw himself into our cart to knock it over. 48 sheets of sheetrock go flying across the entry way taking me, my coworker and a few other people out.

We hear a loud scream and look over and this old lady is pinned against an end cap and a few pieces of sheetrock grasping her ankle which is visibly broken.

The entire store stood in shock.

They couldn’t believe their eyes.

You could hear a pin drop in that store. Mouths were agape. He had a smug look of accomplishment on his face, looked at me and said “Should have listened the first time.”

The front cashiers went into panic mode. Sending everyone who could move out to garden to pay. Entire front was bordered off. Managers were called in panic mode over the intercom.

It sounds like everyone reacted appropriately.

Where was I during all this? I helped a few customers up and we got the sheetrock off the little old lady and got her sitting up on a bucket and to get the weight off. Head cashier called 911 as other cashiers were constantly paging any manager as there was an emergency in the front.

So, I hightailed it to the back to clock out. Store manager saw me breathing heavily, beet red from anger and could probably hear my teeth grinding.

Just get up to the front manager!

He (M from here on) said “what’s going on up front? Has M or D or R (assistant managers) gone up to see what’s up?”

I yelled “GET YOUR BUTT UP THERE!! A WOMAN IS HURT AND I’M GOING TO GO BEAT THE *** OUT OF THE JERK THAT CAUSED IT ALL!!”

Of course the guy was trying to run.

I was sprinting to the front and just as this man was trying to get out the front door, people were trying to block him from leaving.

I yelled “HEY JERK!” and started to cock back my swing, before I could move forward I was being tackled from behind. I swung around to get away and my manager was over me pinning me down.

The manager wants him to be reasonable.

M: DON’T DO THIS!! WE’LL DEAL WITH HIM!! I CAN’T HAVE YOU GET ARRESTED OR FIRED! I NEED YOU!!

Then the fire truck, ambulance and about 3 cop cars show up. The whole front of the store goes into lock down so the woman can get help and the entire front of the store bombard the police explaining what happened.

Honestly, the manager is doing a great job.

All while my manager is basically sitting on me from keeping me from moving. The cops walk over to the man who is still trying to get out of the store and one of the officers walks up to him and says he’s not leaving until they get some questions answered.

AH basically gets mouthy with them the same way he did with me.

Wow, this guy has guts, I’ll give him that.

AH: ****OFF PIG!! I’M LATE!!

Cop: Just wait one minute until we ask you some questions.

Well, that’s it for this guy. He will get what he deserves.

The cop touches the AH’s shoulder and AH turns and swings. The cop probably anticipated this happening and almost in a swift Bruce Lee move, AH was on the ground being hog tied with three officers’ knees digging into his spine and back of his head.

Cop’s threw him in the car all while he was screaming that he’s dangerous and he’ll kill them when he gets out.

Hopefully the lady will be ok.

Policemen took everyone’s statements, and the woman was taken to a nearby hospital. We all pitched in and sent her flowers.

Her son came in a few days later and wanted to thank us for treating her so well. I never heard but I would assume corporate compensated her very well for this incident.

Wow, this is very generous.

I was given a week off (with pay) from my boss and he gave me some cash to take my girlfriend away and get my mind off of what happened. He was really cool about everything and fought corporate to keep me.

Sorry for the length, I just think about this every time I go into that store.

I can see why, what a crazy day!

That was by far the craziest day I’ve ever had in retail. I’ve got a few crazy stories but this one definitely takes the cake.

I wonder what ever happened to the guy who caused this? He was clearly a danger to society.

Keep reading to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Yeah, my job is easy compared to this.

I want to know too.

I couldn’t believe this was happening.

I wouldn’t have thought of this either.

Yup, he is doing real time.

That guy deserves to rot in jail.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.