Seedy looking dude walks into the showroom with his right hand concealed in the left side of his vest and just keeps holding it there. I must say it seemed a bit strange and I was a mite curious, if not slightly concerned, as to what he was holding. Turned out to be a radio But then another time I had these two guys come into my SIGN shop asking could I FIX a radio.
Any other stories?
[ April 29, 2009, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
I had a guy walk in and ask me to "talk to the fella in charge" about some fancy lightbulbs he was selling. I wasn't nervous, he should have been. Luckily for him I was getting ready to go to a meeting and just didn't have time to dig a hole.
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
I would have politely asked him to remove his handfrom his vest so that I could see it.....as I pointed a .357 Magnum at his head.
Werks fer me!
Posted by Checkers (Member # 63) on :
I guess I'm too trusting. When I worked in a warehouse district, I got a lot of creepy visitors that, if I saw on the street, I would make an effort to avoid. However, they made the effort to visit me and I tried to be accommodating. 90% of the time, these characters were just potential clients looking for signs. The other 10% were either sales people or looking for work. Yep, some were probably wacko, but I haven't had a problem yet.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
Posted by Frank Smith (Member # 146) on :
We got cased some in the old hood, but the creeps we found most amusing came in to sell us stuff, usually tools, possibly stolen. They would swear they worked perfectly even if they had no idea what the tools were or how they operated.
[ April 29, 2009, 10:07 PM: Message edited by: Frank Smith ]
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
My scenario is that I have never been scared by anyone coming into my shop or on my property. I've dealt with just about everyone including, bikers, crazies, addicts, politicians, police, solicitors, bible thumpers and suits. As far as I'm concerned everyone has a gimmick and they all stop when I ask them to leave.
Posted by ScooterX (Member # 2023) on :
I only get scared when I'm working on a ladder in a crowded pedestrian area. We have a lot of mentally ill "homeless" people who wander around all day with their possessions in shopping carts. My fear is that some cart will knock the bottom leg of the ladder while i'm on it.
I've had people sit on my ladder (waiting for a bus) WHILE I was on the ladder. I've had people lean against my rolling scaffold - WHILE I was on it. I even had somebody try to move my scaffold (it was blocking her view of the window) WHILE I was on it. That's what scares me.
Sign guys don't look like we have anything worth stealing (except power tools that I keep locked in the van.)
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
normal daytime evening visits from people, dont bother me in the least. when i had the storefront, it was the guy traveling thru with his wife and 5 kids and needs $5 for gas to get to the next town stories.....or sellin stuff for a crack fix. now i did get upset one time here. i went out to the shop, 50-60 fet from the house. i was inside gettin something i needed in the house. thr cat followed me in, so i picker her up and went out the door...........and the cat went bonkers!!!! seems she saw the guy in the driveway BEFORE I DID!!!! AT 3:00 A M !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now iam P.O.........iam dress with nothing more than a pair of shorts, so i put my right behind my back, like i got a gun in my waist band, AND I ATTACKED THE GUY....HEY A.H. WHAT THE #$#^%^ DO YOU THINK YOUR DOIN IN MY @%$%$^^% YARD???? i went toward him, and he backed up to the fence, guy was mid late 20's, white, mid length hair, and now NERVOUS, with his hands in the up position SAYIN...DONT SHOOT ME!!!!! i tell him I SHOULD PUT A CAP IN YOUR ARSE....just cause your here!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 I GOT NO GUN)))))) i asked him his name, he says JOHN ADAMS!!! i get right in his face now and iam in eye to eye contact.....and i say...IAM GEO F-INN WASHINGTON A.H., GLAD TO MEET YOU!!!!!!!! i didnt have my cell phone, and i had no way to keep him there.....so i told him if he EVER COME BACK HERE.....THE NEXT PLACE HE WOULD GO IS THE MORGUE!!!!!!!! he aint been back))))))))
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Only time I get nervous is when I do a motorcycle and it's going to be clear coated by a shop I don't normally work with. When the customer comes back, it's either gonna be to proudly show off the results or to ask why it came out like $hit. Hence the nerves.
Rapid
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
That's one heck of a story, Joe!
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
and after it was over.....and i stopped to THINK.... that iam 63 NOT 25.........and i could really got my arse beat))))))))))))))
Posted by Bob Moroney (Member # 9498) on :
No one will ever get the best of you Joe, unless maybe George W. Bush shows up)))))))))))))))).
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
at least i was able to TALK TO THIS GUY...geo w... iam not that limited in verbal skills))))))))))))
Posted by Rusty Bradley (Member # 6938) on :
Go see Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood...sometimes it's just a lighter in the pocket...by the way...great theme song.
[ May 01, 2009, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: Rusty Bradley ]
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
You may be right OP... but your typing is about on par with GW's verbal acumen!
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
So...the people that scare me the most, are women out of control.
I can deal with drug addicts and crazys, but I'm not willing to put up with women who want to tell you all about how things are, when they themselves don't have it together.
How's that for a new outlook ?
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Hey Jeff, looked for you at the bluegrass fesival. Did I miss you?
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
No Wayne...I wasn't there, except in spirit. I would drive 200 miles just to hug your Mama one time...I guess that makes me bad.
I do miss you folks , and I look forward to the opportunity to see you again, and seeing how far your family band has gone. Stay in touch...because love is precious.
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
I'll warn Mama! Missed seeing you there, Jeff. How are them grandbabies doing?
[ May 04, 2009, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
My first sign job was in NYC, for about 1 year. I had just hitch hiked in to the city with nothing but $100, a plane ticket back to Hawaii, and an invitation from a girl in the East Village to come for a visit to repay me the favor of giving her a place to stay when she visited the islands.
I loved the city, so I found a job that happened to be at an architectural sign company. I loved the job, became somewhat proficient at it, and soon knew I would make it my career, but I left that employment before I left the city because I wanted to experience the squatters lifestyle.
I got to experience taking over an abandoned building in the lower east village, with a bunch of punks I met in Tomkins Square, and carving a life out of a rubble filled, burned out 6 story brick building with no roof or stairs & all the door & window openings boarded up by the city.
Walking to that location at Avenue C and St. Marks Place, always meant walking by numerous crackheads, prostitutes & crack dealers. By this time I had become quite used to this lifestyle, hanging around with these people in these neighborhoods even while I was employed, so once I shipped all my possessions to my folks & became truly homeless like so many of the others in the neighborhood, the thieves, thugs, crooks and cons just saw me as just another part of the landscape they lived in, and not as a mark.
Having lived through multiple robberies at gunpoint in Chicago & out on the road hitch hiking, I didn't embrace or project fear. I'm not saying I don't have fear, I just keep it to myself.
In 13 years at my shop, I don't recall anything fearsome, although I do have a strategically placed baseball bat up front, & my windows all have bars & alarms on them even though that is rare in my building.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
No thugs around the shop . . . when on-site there's always a homeless-looking guy who wanders by wanting to be 'hired' and who tends to become agitated when it appears I may actually want him to work . . .
What scares me is people who come in and say: I don't CARE WHAT it LOOKS like -I JUST WANT IT CHEAP. I'm never sure how each one will react to any of various sarcastic answers availabe for such moments . . .
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
Wayne...at the risk of derailing your post, I just want to say the grandbabies ain't babies no more...and my youngest, Racheal, has 2 boys already.
Now back to what makes you a bit nervous...in the shop that is.
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
WOW! ..........I guess you seem too young to have GREAT grandbabies.
Speaking of kids though...... I think the most nervous I ever got was when I was up to my elbows in epoxy, laminating a sign. This woman comes in with a hyperactive 7 yearold kid who began ransacking the place while his mama asked for a 'price' on a small sign.... He was going from one thing to the next, while his mama said "quit that" without trying to stop him at all.. He finally goes over to a freshly painted sandlbasted sign, puts his foot on it tips it up and looks up at mama as if to say "what are you gonna do now?". At that moment I just blurted out a ridiculously high price. The lady left in a huff, I breathed a sigh of relief, and I went back to my epoxy.
[ May 05, 2009, 11:34 AM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
lol Wayne!
In addition to unruly kids . . . unruly parents WITH unruly kids . . . these parents come in asking every question except the important ones, like for example, 'Can I smoke in here?' They come in touching everything while smoking and appear incredulous when you have to ask them not to smoke (as if no one has any clue solvents and paint are flammable . . .) 'Is this paint wet?' they will ALWAYS ask WHILE they are actually touching it and never before they touch it . . . then they will appear extremely put-out by having wet paint on their finger, which they may wipe off on their own jeans not before, but WHILE they ask, 'does this paint wash out?' as if looking at the sign painters clothes is'nt enough of a clue the paint does NOT wash out . . . .
*sigh* Yes. Quite scary . . .
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Next time, Sheila, grab a ruler and slap them on the hand.
It's the compulsion to use fingernails that irks me to no end. Sometimes they say "How hard is this stuff" about 1.5 seconds before engaging their talons. Other times they do it without warning. It just seems like fingernails are magnetized to dimensional signs. At leaat it seems that way to me. I keep an HDU sample on the counter and usually quickly hand it to them to "test".
Once this uppidy important, articulate, scholarly dude from the local historical society comes in wanting a high-end sign for his organization and during the coversation, reaches over to another customer's sandblasted sign which is awaiting pickup. He tips his thumb to the vertical position and starts pushing his thumbnail into the border surface at which I lost my composure and said "Don't do that....would you want someone to do that to your sign?". At this, he got huffy and left. Haven't seen him since.
Makes you want to hand them an mallet and wood chisel and say "here ya go.....if you want to really test it, take this".....or would you like a jackhammer?"
It's just one of my peeves I guess.
[ May 07, 2009, 01:09 PM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
They always want to sink their claws in the Gold leaf.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
wonder what their styrofaom coolers look like . . . .
I wonder if these people are related to the various bird families known to claw-into styrofoam letters on buildings .. ..
Posted by Jim Moser (Member # 6526) on :
Amazes me how many people have "eyes" in the ends of their fingers...always have to touch everything.
The other thing that I find interesting is how few actually "see" what they are looking at. Posted by Dawud Shaheed (Member # 5719) on :
I'm very happy that I don't have many run-ins with stick up kid crackheads or grimy type individuals anymore. With my business being mobile I find myself in lots of different environments. I may be in "the hood" in the morning and in an upscale community with million+ dollar homes in the afternoon. You learn how to deal with people and as Doug mentioned, not "project" fear or give off the wrong vibe. back in the ninetys I used to be a tattoo artist. Tats were illegal in Massachusetts at that time and I used to do tattoo parties. I'd find myself in the "pj's" aka the projects doing parties making a grand a night. So here I am, dead in the middle of new jack city with $500 to a grand in my pocket at a party with dozens or hundreds of strangers around me. Ha,ha..the stupid things we do when we're in our teens and twenties. I guess it was only a matter of time before someone decided to stick me up because someone finally put a sawed off shotgun to my head in the project hallway. Was I scared? Hell yeah. Did I act scared? I don't think I did. I acted as calm as I could. I remember looking into his eyes and seeing the crazed out dope fiend look in his eyes. As a matter of fact, he looked more scared than me. He was sweating and jumpy. That's why I decided to be super calm. I figured it just might save my life to be calm because I felt like If I challenged this dude, as desperate as he looked He might pop one in me. I pulled a knot of hundreds,twenties, tens, fives etc out of my pocket and threw it down on the stairs. I had about $1500 worth of tattoo gear in toolboxes and bags I was carrying with me and after throwing the money down, instinctively I picked up my gear and tried to walk away. The dude just looked at me like I slapped his mama and smashed me over the head with his sawed off. it hut a little, or more like a lot. Actually I didn't really see it coming because I turned away from him and started to walk out when he did it so my initial thought when I felt the sharp pain was maybe he shot me, but when the fogginess wore off i just staggered out and walked to my car. At that point the anger sets in, and I had a debit card in my car and a few empty beer bottles. I figured I was set up by the people in the house, and I was p*i*s*s*ed. So I drove to a gas station nearby and was about to fill up the bottles with gas to make a few molotov cocktails. (Again, the crazy stuff we do in our twenties) But I remembered it was a project, and that kids were in there, and that it was only a few dollars in comparison to what I could make during the week and next weekend, so my sensibilities and decent upbringing prevailed over my impulse to kill something. And I drove home. A friend let me borrow his equipment that week until my order for new equipment came in and all was well.
[ May 09, 2009, 11:51 PM: Message edited by: Dawud Shaheed ]
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Whew! Duwad! Now that was a scary sitchuashun!
I'm glad you did the right thing and tho't about the children . . .
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