I used to work at a Walmart the Walmart I worked at was open 24 hours back then due to my kid's school schedule I would work overnight shifts so that I would be available to drop him off and pick him up I would do a 10: p. m. to 7:00 a.
m. shift every night during the day I'd sleep sleep take care of my son and work my second job some days I was exhausted a lot during this time in my life it wasn't a great time I had to do what I could to cover rent though this Walmart was one of the bigger ones it was a super center not just a grocery store so it had everything it was one of the few open 24 hours around here I think Co changed that though when I got there around 10:00 this one cold night there was still a decent amount of Shoppers in the store a lot of people people would come in for some late night shopping as the hours would pass it would of course quiet down tremendously the late hours of the night would attract a lot of weirder characters weirder than the usual ones during the day into the am hours of the night there was only one person working the front of the store and he or she would be at the self checkout registers there were no regular registers open this late there would also be a couple of stock workers on the floor which was what I did then there would be a couple warehouse workers in the back who I really didn't ever interact with they did their own thing and then there's just the night manager on duty I was in the serial aisle doing my usual stockwork I noticed a customer walk past the aisle then seconds later he stepped back into view at the end of the aisle stopped and looked down at me when I looked back at him he started looking at the cereal the guy had curly hair I couldn't gauge his ethnicity honestly he had a black backpack on that looked like it was stuffed to the brim with God knows what he awkwardly lingers in the cereal aisle for a minute apparently looking at the granola bars then he came a little closer to me and asked me where the bread is I pointed him in the right direction he said thanks and slowly walked away out of the aisle I watched him walk away and he had a very noticeable waddle in his walk when he was out of sight he was out of mind though the problem was that he wasn't out of sight for long I was in the cial aisle for quite some time and I started noticing that every few minutes that guy would slowly passed by the aisle looking down in this direction he wasn't holding anything he didn't get any bread he just had on his big sketchy backpack I started working faster just so I could finish this aisle and move away from him when I was done I brought the empty uo platform back to the warehouse where I grabbed another ubo full of boxes ready to stock I purposely picked an aisle far away from the cereal aisle I was now in the chips aisle this is also about 45 minutes after initial contact with that guy so there should have been no way he was still here but I was wrong he found me I was rotating the newer bags of chips behind the older ones on the shelf and then I looked to my right and that guy was at the end of the aisle creeping again he still had nothing in his hands this man had been creeping around the store for almost an hour he then finally approached me as I was dreading he would I tried to look away until he started to speak I don't remember word for word what he said but basically he said that he's been checking me out and he couldn't resist coming up to me telling me how beautiful I am I responded as politely as I could I did a fake little laugh and said no thank you that's very sweet he didn't stop there though he asked a bunch of personal questions like where I'm from I gave fake answers to everything this guy absolutely ReRe and his breath was awful I was genuinely repulsed he asked for my number and I said I'm seeing someone he said there's nothing wrong with us just being friends to get him to leave me alone I gave him a fake number I then told him I really can't be talking to anyone while I'm working he made some creepy comment before walking away thinking he was all swaave that he got my number when in reality he was genuinely creepy and I gave him a fake number I thought that would be the end of it hours went by and time felt like it was going in reverse I wanted to go home then the only other stock where on the job at that hour suddenly walkie-talkie to me saying there's some creepy looking guy asking for me I said oh no and then told her to tell him I left I then basically made a beine for the employee lounge where I planned on hiding for a while I made it to the lounge and then sat in one of the seats then the double doors opened and in came that guy he looked at me and he looked angry he yelled you gave me a fake number you I think I swallowed my gum out of fear I said you can't be back here sir he then took off his backpack and plopped it on the table next to mine he started unzipping it as he looked at me that's when it was time for me to go I got up and ran past him without thinking he tried to grab my arm but he failed as I ran through the store I looked back and saw he was running after me I ran to the front of the store and outside to my car it was the only thing I could think to do in the moment alternatively I could have tried finding the male warehouse work workers in the back or even the manager but that was no guarantee I got to my car and saw the man leave the Walmart looking for me he was slow he must have been on something he saw my card but it was too late I was already driving away I called the night manager and let him know what just went down and that I'm not comfortable staying there tonight I also warned him of the man with a backpack full of unknown contents my manager told me I can't leave the place short staffed he said he'd call the police to make sure the man doesn't come back and he told me need to come back I was adamant about not returning that night though he eventually got the message and said he'd review the camera footage but that I need to come back tomorrow night and I did he allegedly notified the police the next day of the man and gave the police department the surveillance footage I met a lot of characters working that job but this guy was by far the scariest I don't know what he was reaching for in his backpack I don't want to either I was 14 when this happened there's a Walmart that's walking distance to my house I used to sometimes go there to buy clothing and such before I was of driving age since it was so close sometimes I'd go with my friend Emily sometimes I just go alone the Walmart is part of the nearby mall but the mall kind of stinks now most of the good stores I've closed over the years plus I wasn't made of money when I was 14 and Walmart is cheap one night I walked to Walmart with my airpods in it's a 15-minute walk when I put my airpods in I shut out everything else around me I feel like most people with basic social awareness know that if someone's wearing headphones it means they don't want to have to take them out to talk to you I was minding my business in Walmart in the girl's clothing department when I noticed a guy next to me saying something I couldn't hear what he was saying but it looked like he was talking to me I took out my airpods and I said are you talking to me he said yes he was this shorter man with gray hair who looked like 50 he had glasses and a clean shaven face he smiled and said sorry I didn't see your headphones sure he didn't he said he was just telling me how his daughter buys the same exact kind of jeans I was wearing I had no idea why he was telling me this but I'm a very polite person to everybody I always have been so I chose to be kind to him by laughing and saying oh that's funny that should have been the end of an interaction that didn't need to happen but of course this wouldn't be a story if it was I was still looking through this rack of tops as the man kept trying to talk to me he mistook my kindness for actual interest in talking to him clearly he asked my age and I said 14 and his response was unsettling he basically said oh what a great age so mature but still so young he asked my name for some reason I actually gave him my real name and his response to my name was wow that's my favorite name for a girl next up he asked what school I went to and around now was when I decided to start making things up I said I'm actually not from around here I'm just visiting my cousin he couldn't let it go though and he persisted asking where I'm from I said I'm from out of state keeping it vague but then he said I've seen you around here before are you sure you're not from around here I looked at him and tried to think of a response but instead I ended up turning around and walking away from him I was for the first time ever ever actually made very uncomfortable by a stranger the way he said he seen me before made me feel as though he'd been watching me or paid attention to me in this Walmart before I went to buy the jeans I was holding at the front of the Walmart then I walked through the store to enter the mall it was November or December and they had just put up the Christmas decorations so I wanted to walk through and I also wanted to see if any new stores open since my shopping in Walmart was cut short I walked through the mall with really nothing catching my eye I went into a Victoria Secret and while inside of there I saw through the glass that guy from Walmart sitting on a bench in the mall outside of the Victoria Secret I left the store and started walking very quickly through the mall when I turned around and saw he was now walking behind me I started to panic and called my mom asking her for a ride because I was being followed by a man I took her advice and waited in a store with multiple people inside he came to the entrance of the store and he creepily said my name in this way that he clearly didn't want want a lot of people to hear him I started to feel sick I went to the cashier and said this man is following me I don't know him some customers overheard and looked over and the man clearly noticed and started walking away into the mall the cashier who was probably only 20 years old herself sympathized with me a couple even came over and said they'd wait with me until my mom got here my mom came into the mall eventually and I left with her thanking the couple who waited with me I didn't go to the mall or that Walmart alone anymore I didn't even go back with friends for a long time either I hope that guy got caught being a creep and has been taken off the [Music] streets my worst job ever was working at Walmart I worked there only for a few months I hated every minute of it honestly I didn't get along with a lot of my co-workers the customers were crazy and weird we and I felt like a lot of people just generally were unfriendly I was 24 and Walmart was my second job to make ends meet with my new apartment sometimes I'd work register sometimes I'd work the desk outside the fitting room and sometimes I'd work general sales associate on this day I was a general associate walking around the place assisting customers and straightening things on the shelves I interacted with a bunch of people that day I still remember dealing with some of the dumbest customers I'd ever had the displeasure of interacting with but nothing could have prepared me for who I was going to run into that day I got a random pad on the back and I turned around to see my ex-girlfriend Casey she looked super happy to see me and went in for a hug I was surprised because she didn't live anywhere near here I asked what brought her here and she said she heard through a mutual friend that I started working here recently Casey and I did not leave off on good terms at all she had been harassing me for a while since I had broken up with her and I had to end up blocking her on everything to get her to stop she was insanely controlling throughout her relationship and downright obsessive bipolar and paranoid and after I ended things with her she wouldn't stop trying to contact me and meet up with me to talk things out even though we had talked things out multiple times she even left multiple voicemails crying I take no joy in any of that I don't say any of this to belittle her or make a joke of Mental Illness but she has issues and I came to learn that and I had to tell her multiple times her behavior is not normal her finding out I got this job and coming to my place of work I was not okay with even though I hugged her back and was cordial at first in this interaction I eventually cut the crap and said why are you here the fake friendliness stopped here on both sides her face got more serious and she started telling me that it's really messed up that I block her out of my life like this I told her this is the exact kind of behavior that made me block her showing up to my job is not normal then I started asking her which mutual friend told told her that I worked here she claimed that's irrelevant and I assured her it most certainly is not irrelevant because I didn't believe that anyone told her where I work I had broken up with Casey many months ago she should have had no way of knowing about my new job or apartment and I was confident none of my friends were even in contact with her anymore I told her I'm seeing someone else now I have to get back to work please leave and don't contact me again she refused to leave so I simply just started walking away to an employees's own area she didn't follow me back there it was at this moment I actually started considering trying to get a restraining order after my shift was over it had to be like 11:00 p. m.
