I'll never forget the day when....

I'm interested in hearing your stories about memorable events that have happened in your store.  E-mail your stories to me (michaelhjoel@gmail.com) and let me post or just write it in the comments below.  Let me get it started. 

I'll never forget the day when...I was covering a day shift for an employee of the store when two Federal agents came in to speak with me.  The agents, a man and a woman both in their early 30's, were wearing sidearms and had a look of business about them that indicated they weren't customers.

They explained that one of our mailbox customers was suspected of passport fraud and they were there in an attempt to arrest him.  I didn't know this particular mailbox customer as I hadn't opened the box for him and had never met him.  Nevertheless, they asked me to call him and let him know he had a package arrive at the store for him.  After I made the call, it was just a game of waiting.

The agents decided to sit out in the parking lot in their car awaiting their man.  That must have been one long day for them because he didn't show all day.   Can you imagine anything more boring?  At the end of the day, they came in to let me know they planned on coming back the next day and do it all over again.

The next day, around mid-morning, a scraggly looking customer walked through my front door with a smile on his face.  He looked up at me as if I was a long lost friend and was making his way toward the mailboxes.  Without missing a beat, he said, "I think I have a package here."

Now, I couldn't be sure this was the guy.  I had never met him.  But I was facing the parking lot and could see the two agents making their way to the store very quickly.  There was no doubt they thought this was their man.

Before he made his way clear to the mailboxes, the agents stormed into the store, guns drawn! 

"John Smith!   Hands Up!  Federal Officers!  On your knees!  On your knees!"

It sure didn't feel like it looks in the movies.  They were using their loud voices.  You know; the voices they must learn in the academy that just scares the living bejeesus out of anyone not ready for it.  And it didn't dawn on me they would have their guns drawn, advancing on him.

One thing I immediately did was move to the opposite side of the store.  I sure has hell didn't want to get caught by a stray bullet.

In hindsight, the thing I found funny was that the female officer was all of 5'2" and maybe 130 pounds.  Pretty cute if I'm completely honest.   But in that moment, with her loud girl voice and gun drawn, I think I would rather have wrestled a grizzly.


Once they cuffed him and processed him in the parking lot, I never heard from the agents or Mailbox customer again.

Not just another day at the office.