Strange things are afoot at the...dollar store

And for my 3rd post of the day...

So...I went to the dollar store just before it closed, on an emergency laundry basket run (the emergency being that now *I* am doing some laundry - when my mother was doing all of it, another laundry basket was more of a when-I-get-around-to-it shopping item). When I walked into the store, I saw some of the employees clustered around the front door chattering sort of excitedly, but I ignored them and went looking for the baskets. I shopped for a few minutes, then got in the checkout line and started eavesdropping in earnest. When I heard the clerk tell the woman in front of me that the police were on their way, I interrupted to ask her to take it from the top.

Here's the story, as told to me by the dollar store clerk/manager - shortly before I arrived, a man came into the store with a bulge under his coat and was acting odd. The manager followed him to the back of the store and asked if he needed help, and he said that he had a gun and was a police officer (at this point in the story, I asked why on earth a normal person would volunteer that he had a gun and said "I'm wearing underwear, but I didn't tell you that" - I am so amusing to myself). The manager, acting with much more presense of mind than I'd have had for sure, asked him for a badge, which he said he must have left in his car.

The manager went back to the front of the store, presumably to call the police, just as a cop car pulled through the parking lot on patrol. She asked the officer to come in and check out the weird guy, which he did, even patting him down but finding nothing. The cop left (if I were the manager, I'd be thinking 'thanks, cop! for leaving me with a psycho!'), and the weirdo filled a cart with stuff and came to the front. The manager rang up everything and gave him the total, and the guy reached for his wallet, couldn't find it, and started yelling that the cop had stolen it. He got loud and aggressive with the manager, so she called 911 and he fled.

By the time I heard this story, the manager had been waiting over 10 minutes for the police, and the guy was who knows where. Perhaps the police were busy fining errant trash bags. All I know is that I skittered back to my car with as much haste and alertness as I could muster, and that I am not going to the dollar store at night any more.

The end.