It’s wild how quickly a calm evening errand can turn into a bizarre confrontation.

One shopper was just double-checking her purchase in the parking lot when an angry woman mistook her for an employee and completely lost her marbles about the store being closed early.

You’ll want to read on for this story.

Scolded for closing a store I don’t work at…

This happened a couple of weeks ago. I made a quick run to a party supply and craft store for a cake project I was working on. The place closes at 8. I got there at 7:45, found my item within ten minutes, paid, and went out to my car.

I was sitting in my parking space at 7:57, just reading the packaging of my purchase to double-check something, when another car pulled up beside me.

I saw a woman in her late 50s get out, and I could see her walk to the store entrance from my rearview mirror. The automatic doors didn’t open for her.

That’s when chaos broke loose.

I went back to reading my packaging and looked up when I heard a woman’s voice near my closed window. “(Something something) CLOSED!”

Politely, I cracked my window down, like, a centimeter, to actually hear her.

The shopper tried to politely inform the customer, but it soon became clear the customer was confused.

She was ranting that they were closed, and I said, “Oh yeah, they close at 8 now, I guess—”

She cut me off. “IT’S NOT 8 YET! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE CLOSED YET! IT’S SEVEN. FIFTY. EIGHT!!”

I replied, “…?? …I don’t work ther—”

But the customer wouldn’t listen.

She cut me off again. “I DON’T CARE IF IT’S 2 MINUTES OR 2 SECONDS TO 8! IT IS ILLEGAL TO CLOSE EARLY!”

She was kind of close to my car, so I didn’t want to just pull out and tap her with the mirror and have her sue me or something, which is why I didn’t leave yet.

I firmly, a bit louder, repeated, “I. DO NOT. WORK THERE.”

The customer didn’t seem to buy it.

The woman made a big, obnoxious, exaggerated arm gesture to the empty parking lot, using this loud, antagonistic, singsongy tone. “I DON’T SEE ANY OTHER CARS HEEEEERRRREEE.”

She was insinuating I must be lying about being an employee. Pretty sure employee parking at that place is behind the building.

When she moved over a bit during that grand arm gesture, it gave me room to comfortably pull away, so I started the car.

The shopper had one last word for this crazy lady before she left.

As I rolled up the window, I said, “I AM A C U S T O M E R, you freaking banana.” I held up my receipt to the glass, then shifted in reverse. She was still yelling something when I left.

And, to be clear, there couldn’t be any real reason for this lady to assume I worked there.

The people who actually did work there looked quite different from her.

It’s mainly run by teenagers, in my experience, and I’m in my late 30s. I wasn’t wearing any work-like attire or nametags — I was in loungey clothes (Gave Up On Life Heather Gray-colored joggers and a multicolored flannel shirt).

Employees wear bright, solid-colored shirts and… not sweatpants.

Of course, this crazy customer couldn’t be bothered to care about logic in this moment.

What did Reddit make of all this?

This ex-retail worker also calls out another falsehood this lady was casually spewing.

This user was tickled by this playful description.

Stores have to set boundaries too, clearly for good reason.

Customers need to learn that retail employees shouldn’t be expected to give them special treatment.

If this irate woman had taken one second to look this shopper up and down, it would have been clear this wasn’t the employee she was looking for.

Who knew a simple errand could turn into a customer service conspiracy?

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