2003-02-09 - 1:17 a.m.

Bad Excitement

When you work in such a mundane as my job. You'd think I'd welcome excitement at my job. The problem is "excitement" is usually the result of bad things happening.

Case in Point, Friday Night. I was actually whipping along at a great pace for a friday night. I had the thought running through my mind "Ok, What's gonna happen to stop me from finishing ahead of schedule."

Some Short time after that thought. I saw a guy walking around the hall. The thing with my job is I sit and stare at the crowd and I notice out of place things such as this guy. He didn't look like a bingo player and he wasn't familiar with the hall. He stopped and asked a floor worker where the bathrooms were and she pointed him in the direction of them.

Now, Being as I've now spotted someone who is obviously "up to something" as soon as he walks in the bathroom I look at my watch. 11pm almost on the dot. No sooner do I call another number (some 6 seconds later) he's already walking back out of the bathroom. Thought : "Wow, that was quick pee"

He then starts to walk towards one of the exits and I take my attention off the guy. Just as I start to call a number I hear a loud shout.

The guy bolts for the door. Followed by a number of other bingo players (also an employee who was offshift and playing). The guy had stolen a ladies purse. I jumped out of my seat.

The problem with my location as a caller in this new hall is I am stuck in a box in the corner of the hall. This whole commotion was happening on the far side of the hall from me. So, I sat down again. I called the manager over the microphone and informed him what happpened. No, harm in that since pretty much everyone had figured out what happened.

I let too much time when I suddenly had a thought. The door to my caller's stand is at the bottom of the staircase to the exit outside on my side of building. I was having the thought I should have ran outside when I first jumped out of my seat. I would come to regret that not doing that.

I stopped the game and waited for everyone to return. Seems my co-worker that was off-shift just about caught the guy but just couldn't quite catch up to him. After the manager gave me the go ahead. We then carried on with operation.

Now, In our new hall it's a really silly thing to steal anything. There are cameras just about EVERYWHERE. I am pretty sure from just where I saw him walk and then eventually flee. He was probably recorded on no less than THREE cameras. Enough that the manager was able to give the police a description right away.

After I finished the session I went asked the question that was bugging me. Which way he ran. What happened was he left the building and then ran back along the building to my side.

If I had jumped up and ran out my caller stand door. I would seen the staircase and knew to run outside. If I had done that the purse snatcher would have ran smack dab into me. Probably wouldn't have even expected me to be there. I also would have solved him in a moment by doing what I do best. When dealing with people running full steam the easiest way to stop them is to just run straight into them (perhaps even a good shoulder to the chest area [Ex-Hockey Player I am]).

Alas, I didn't do that and the bastard got away. I was kicking myself. I've made a mental note that should that EVER happen again while I am working I am going to run out my exit even if it ends up being fruitless.

Like I said, Excitement at our hall is usually a drift from the norm and it's a bad thing.

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The Last Five Bingo Games

Ripples - 2011-02-01
Checkmate - 2010-11-11
I Need Anger - 2010-10-15
I'd Like To Point Something Out - 2010-09-10
A Tempting Morsal - 2010-08-20

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