Being underestimated can be a dangerous thing sometimes.

So, what would you do if a group of teenage troublemakers had been tearing through your mall all afternoon, and for whatever reason, mall security couldn’t stop them? Would you stay out of it? Or would you decide that if no one else was going to handle it, you just might?

In the following story, a teenage cinema employee finds herself facing this decision and chooses the latter. Here’s what she did.

mall security might not get you, but i will…

I used to work at a cinema in a mall complex, and we’d occasionally get some troublemakers, but it was really nothing much. At most, it was kids trying to get into R-rated movies, or people sneaking into theatres without tickets.

I will say that a couple of the managers weren’t exactly understanding or respectful towards me (with some health issues I had), so I disliked two, and then two other managers were nice.

This day, my absolute favourite manager was on. She treated me like an actual human with thoughts and feelings, and with respect and decency rather than a walking vacuum cleaner and ticket machine. I also knew she struggled a lot with anxiety.

The guys finally reached the theatre.

So, one day I get word that a group of 4 guys, probably 16 or so, really obnoxious type, have been going all around the mall for the last hour or so causing havoc, messing up displays, hassling underpaid workers, even breaking some stuff here and there.

They started down one end of the mall, and security had been called on them, but somehow they failed to do anything

Finally, they made it to the cinema.

A group of 4 guys walked in, and I could tell it was them, so I blocked them from going into the theatre and casually asked to see their tickets (now I cared very little usually if someone snuck in here and there, but they had been making average people’s day worse for fun, and I wasn’t having it).

They chose the wrong day.

They pretended to look for their tickets, and I “called security on them” (my radio was off, and I didn’t even have access to a security line, but they didn’t need to know that).

They booked it back through the lobby and down the stairs, yelling, but I could tell it was still just a dumb game to them.

Technically, I was powerless to do anything once they left the premises, but I was on minimum wage, having a bad day, trying to look out for the one kind manager, and I had nothing to lose.

She went chasing after them.

I did the one thing they weren’t prepared for any worker to do, and I sprinted full speed after them, not letting up. I chased them down the stairs as they screamed and cursed.

I chased them through the whole food court as astonished customers stopped and stared at the scene. I chased them until they ran all the way out the exit and into the street. They never came back again.

To make matters funnier, I was a 17-year-old girl, 5’1, blonde pigtails, pink glittery lip gloss, pressed nails, real girly girl. But I bet they didn’t tell their mates that part, lol.

Wow! Talk about an exciting day at work.

Let’s see if the readers over at Reddit have ever done anything like this.

This is too funny.

Here’s someone who also scared some boys.

Yet another woman who did something similar.

Apparently so.

She sure was brave, but her bosses probably didn’t see it like that.

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.