When I was sixteen, I got an after-school job, at a local shoe store, as a cashier. The manager was a very sweet, old man. The Assistant Manager, was a relatively young mother. There was another cashier who had recently graduated high school, and was attending community college, and there was a stock boy from my school. All were native, Spanish speakers, as the store was located in a very Latin American community. It was a great opportunity to practice the four years of Spanish I had under my belt.
Though I had little in common with the other girls, we eventually became pretty friendly. One of us would be on the register, while the others unpacked shipments close by, and inserted the price tags, all the while chatting and laughing. We had a lot of fun.
I was really good on the register. My counts were always accurate at the end of a shift. I carefully counted out the customers' change in dolares and centavos. Yet, it was not unusual, for the Manager, to ask for a count, mid-shift, to ensure the amount in the register consistently matched the sales receipts. In fact, we often had visiting District and Regional Managers, and it was not uncommon for them to ask to count the drawer randomly either.
Therefore, when a man approached the register one day, and asked me for "the money", I did not hesitate to hand over the entire drawer. I just assumed it was a visiting manager that maybe came in during my lunch break. It wasn't until about twenty minutes later, when the Manager then asked me for my drawer, that we both had the horrible realization of what had happened. "I already gave the drawer to the other guy." "What other guy?" "The other guy that asked for the money." "You gave someone all the money?" "Yeah!" (in my most clueless teenage voice)
I remember how quickly the Manager ran out the door, his hair flying in the air, sweat dripping down the side of his face. Luckily there was a cop car standing in the parking lot. He approached the police officer and told him the story. I stood at the window watching in disbelief. I don't know how much time had passed, but before my shift was over, we did learn that the perpetrator robbed another store and had been caught.
We also learned that he was armed, and hence my immediate relinquishment of all the money may have just saved my life for all we know.
Join us again next week for Episode 4 - The Unofficial Shoe Store Boondoggle to the Virgin Islands
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