Some people treat parking lots like their own personal landfill.

What would you do if a customer dumped bags of trash right outside your restaurant window and then insisted it was “your job” to clean it up?
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Would you just bite your tongue and walk away? Or would you stand your ground and flex your management badge?

In the following story, a young assistant manager finds herself in this exact situation and chooses the latter.

Here’s what happened.

Don’t litter in my parking lot!

I’d been working at a mom & pop shop for fried chicken for a few years and had gone up from cashier to assistant manager.

I was only 20, so many of our customers didn’t realize I was the one in charge since I definitely looked my age. This led to a lot of “let’s speak to your manager” and “I AM the manager” situations, which were very satisfying to younger me.

This is the most memorable of those stories, and it took place a few years ago.

The customer opened his car door and pushed trash into the parking lot.

It was late at night, and we were getting ready to close when a car pulled into the drive-thru. I would take orders during the last hour to give my employees more time to clean up, so I answered and took their orders.

They pull up to the window in this ratty old car that stank and was full of garbage and fast food bags. I took their money and informed them that there would be a small wait for fresh food.

The man driving said that was fine, and I closed the window.

As soon as I did, they opened their car door and pushed trash out onto the ground! And it wasn’t just a little bit, it was several bags, cups, and napkins.

He was adamant about not picking the trash back up.

Well, I don’t really like confrontation, so when I walked back to give them the food, I politely said, “Excuse me, it looks like some things fell out of your car when you opened the door.”

He looked down and then looked at me and said, “No, I put that there on purpose.”

I couldn’t believe he really said that, so I replied, “We have trash cans outside that you can throw your trash in, and we appreciate you not littering.”

He looked at me like I’d slapped him and said, “I’m not picking that up, that’s your job,” or something along those lines.

Here’s where she finally put the rude customer in his place.

I was fed up with his attitude and said back, “No, it’s not, and we have several no littering signs on the property. Please throw your trash in the trash can up there.” And I pointed at the trash can that was literally 8 feet in front of his car.

He yelled back, “I want to see your manager!”

And I curtly said, “Sir, I am the assistant manager of this store. Now, please pick up your own trash and throw it away, or don’t come back.”

Thankfully, he was never heard from again.

He stared at me for a few seconds silently, then picked up his trash and put it back into the car.

I said thank you, and he called me a ***** and drove off. And he DIDN’T EVEN STOP at our trash can. Just sped off angrily into the night.

I never saw him again, and he never complained, so nothing ever came from it, but it makes for a good story.

Plus, it was nice to be rude to a jerk and stand my ground for once.

Wow! This guy sounds like a mess… literally!

Let’s check out if the readers over at Reddit have encountered any similar situations.

Here’s someone happy she did that because they don’t like littering.

Yet another person who likes what she did.

This is a great question.

For this former manager, it brings back memories.

That guy had a lot of nerve!

It’s good that he was forced to clean up his own mess.

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