If you have a restraining order against someone, that person has to stay away from you, but it goes both ways. You also have to stay away from them.

In today’s story, one employee knows she can’t serve a certain customer due to a restraining order, but the customer doesn’t seem to understand.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Dragon customer doesn’t understand how restraining orders work.

I got my first real job when I was 14, in the deli section of the local supermarket.

To explain this story, I need to add a bit of background: My little sister was being brutally bullied at school by this girl who would follow her home from school taunting her (She lived nowhere near us, so why she was putting in so much effort was anyone’s guess).

One particularly lovely day, my sister was walking with her friend when the bullying started, and feeling brave with her friend by her side, she swung around and ripped the girl back by her hair and punched her in the face. 5 points to Gryffindor.

The little pig went wee-wee-wee all the way home and cried wolf to her mother, who set a restraining order against my sister. (Apparently not realising how these things work, but to keep you in the loop; it works both ways. Neither party, or “second parties” including friends and family are allowed any contact with the other party or their second parties.)

This sounds like a big problem.

So here I am, 14 year old me, working in the deli when this dragon (the mother of the girl who was bullying my sister) waltzes up to the counter.

Knowing I can’t legally interact with her, I step back and quietly ask my colleague to serve her.

But no, she wasn’t here for ham. She was here for beef.

So dragon lady starts screaming that “how dare you refuse to serve me”, and pulls out the old “I would like to speak to your manager!” Card.

The boss listens to both sides of the story.

Here comes Mr. Boss Man.

He asks the situation from her and she tells him her horror story about how I rudely refused service and left her standing waiting like a fool. (My colleague stands there with a dumbfounded “am I invisible?” look on her face.)

Mr. Boss Man turns to me and asks me if it’s true.

So I say, as clearly and as factually as possible; “Yes, my colleague was willing to serve her though. Legally I can’t serve this woman due to a restraining order she has against my nine year old sister.”

The customer tried to explain the situation away.

Everyone looking shocked.

Mr. Boss Man calmly turns to the dragon lady and asks her if this is true.

She stumbles over her argument that the restraining order has nothing to do with anything, but Mr. Boss Man is not a stupid man.

He’s been in the customer service game a long time, and he’s watched our reactions and he knows an attention seeker when he sees one.

Here’s how it worked out.

He calmly turns back to this woman and says, “You are knowingly harassing my staff. You are no longer a welcome customer of this store and if you choose to return, you will have a restraining order set against you by [name of the supermarket].”

She did of course come back, and as promised Mr. Boss Man took her to court.

As a side note, my sister ended up having her order lifted by the court as the girl continued to follow her home and harass her, breaching the order on at least four occasions.

That’s not a very happy ending considering her sister was still getting bullied.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Yes, it’s easy to see where the bully learned to be a bully.

I hope so too.

Her manager really was great.

I feel bad for her sister too.

The manager was the real hero in this story.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.