Sometimes, wearing the wrong thing at the wrong time can cause a lot of confusion.

When a man stopped by the mall after work still wearing his whistle from his crossing guard job, people started mistaking him for store staff.

Before long, the actual employees were barking orders at him like he was on the payroll.

Keep reading for the full story!

The whistle

Several years ago, I (~25 M) worked as an emergency school crossing supervisor.

I would go to school crossings where the normal supervisor was ill.

One day, after work, I decided to go to the shopping centre and look around the electronics store — while still wearing my whistle around my neck.

This didn’t deter a couple clearly confused customers.

As I was looking around, two different customers asked me where something was.

I stated that I didn’t work there, and they pointed out the “lanyard” around my neck.

I pointed out that it was, in fact, a whistle.

This could have been the end of it, and it would have been a funny story — but what happened next was downright bizarre.

But that wasn’t the end of the mistaken identity.

A staff member came up to me and announced that another staff member couldn’t make their shift because they were ill, and instructed me to tell the manager.

I just looked at him, dumbfounded.

In that moment, he couldn’t have looked any less like an employee of that establishment.

I wasn’t wearing the uniform — just plain clothes and a whistle — and, as I didn’t work in the suburb at the time (I now do, and am in fact in the same shopping centre now typing this story on my phone), there was no possibility anyone could have recognized me.

All I could do was stare at them, dumbfounded, and leave the store as quickly as I could, vowing never to forget to take my whistle off again.

I wonder what happened to the sick employee… did anyone actually ever tell the manager they wouldn’t be there?

What a truly strange encounter.

Some of these people should have been clued in that they were talking to the wrong person.

Maybe if the whistle had been more obscured, he would have had an easier time.

Just because he was wearing a lanyard didn’t mean he was an employee.

This story just goes to show that mistaken identity can happen anywhere, even in the places you least expect.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.