Imagine going to a grocery store in your work uniform, but you don’t work at a grocery store. If your work uniform looked nothing like the grocery store employee uniform, would you be surprised if a customer thought you worked there?

It seems all too common that customers don’t pay very close attention and assume other customers are employees, but you’d think once the situation is explained, they would apologize for the misunderstanding and find an actual employee. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case.

In this story, an ambulance driver is mistaken for a grocery store employee. Keep reading to see how he handles the situation.

I don’t work here, I work in that (points) AMBULANCE!

Years ago, in the early 2000’s, I was working 24 hour shifts on an ambulance.

Since we were working these extended shifts, we had a kitchen and whatnot at our station. So if we didn’t have a call right at the beginning of our shift, after our rig and equipment checks, the first thing we’d do in the morning is our grocery shopping for the day.

Now, just to make sure it’s clear that there’s no possible way for us to be mistaken for the uniform of the store employees, we wore blue button down shirts, had a patch on one arm that said “State of [Redacted]” and our certification level (either EMT-Basic or Paramedic) and on the other arm had a patch with our company logo on it. We had dark blue pants with about half a million pockets, radios on our belts, etc.

The grocery store employee’s uniforms were either a white or tan shirt and black pants, and usually some type of apron, with the store logo.

It was a pretty upscale neighborhood.

The last bit of info I should add is that the area we worked in was one of the richest neighborhoods in our metro area, and usually the cheapest car you saw in the parking lot was a Lexus.

So now that the stage is set, comes our adventure.

My partner and I were at the store doing our shopping for the day, and it was a relatively quiet Sunday morning. Other than us, there were only a couple of other shoppers in the store, and several employees were plainly visible doing their morning duties.

OP was interrupted by another customer.

I’m busy trying to decide if I want link or patty sausages for my breakfast, when I hear the classic “Ahem”. I’m pretty engrossed (because let’s be honest, it’s an important decision, and now I’m weighing bacon into the mix too), and I really don’t pay too much attention.

Then I hear it again, accompanies by finger snapping…

I’m broken out of my sizzling reverie by this, and think maybe I’m blocking someone’s access to the cooler?

Turn around and there’s this lady in her 60’s, dressed up way too fancy for a early Sunday morning grocery run, and she’s glaring at me.

The other customer didn’t seem to actually listen to what the ambulance worker said.

“I’m sorry Ma’am, am I blocking your way?”

“No! I need [can’t remember the exact item she’s looking for].”

“I’m sorry Ma’am, I’m not an employee here, I work for [redacted], the ambulance company. However, I’ve seen a couple of employees a few aisles over, I’m sure they’ll be happy to help!”

“Young man, you will do your job! I need you to find [item] for me.”

Seriously, is this woman hard of hearing?

“Ma’am, again, I’m really sorry, but I do not work here. I work on the ambulance you had to walk past to come in (we always park right up front in case we get a call). Now, I apologize, but I need to finish my shopping so we can get back to the station. ”

I reach into the cooler, grab a package of bacon (because bacon always wins in the end) and plop it into my basket, turn and start to leave.

And this crazy old bat decides to shove her cart in my way to try to block me from walking away from her.

“Young man, my husband is [name that apparently she thought i should recognize] and my shopping here pays your wages. Do your job and help me. NOW!”

The store manager came to his rescue.

Between the crash of her cart hitting the cooler and her escalating tone of voice, we’ve (thankfully) caught the attention of one of the store employees. They come around the corner, and turns out it’s the store manager (I recognize her because we’ve run calls at this store before).

“Mrs. [Name]! Please calm down, and I’ll gladly help you.”

She’s getting wound up to start yelling again, and about that time, my radio starts going off (when we’re assigned to a call, it starts beeping *very* loudly).

The store manager had his back.

I silence it, turn to the store manager, and apologize to her for running off and leaving my groceries in the cart, but we’re getting a call and I have to go.

She’s very understanding, and as I’m walking off, I hear the old bat asking (yelling at) the store manager, “WHERE DOES HE THINK HE’S GOING, I NEED [ITEM]!”

And her reply, “Presumably, to his ambulance to respond to that call, since that’s his job!”

Some customers really are crazy! That woman clearly wasn’t listening to anything the ambulance driver actually said.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This is funny!

She seriously didn’t understand.

This would’ve been a good comeback.

Get a grip, lady!

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.