Transcript
Speaker: Ever work night shifts? I know some of you have. I've seen a few posts around here about people stuck working during the midnight hours, and they're definitely my favorite. Normal people don't really know what it's like to be wide awake when the rest of the world is sleeping peacefully.
Speaker: It's Lonely Shore. I find it difficult to keep up with daywalker friends, and I'm pretty sure it costs me one or two girlfriends, but... Above all, It's weird. But due to my own dumb mistakes, it's pretty much all the work I can get.
Speaker: Yeah. I got a record. Not many places will take me on. let alone give me any serious responsibility. So when the local Walmart here in Nogales, Arizona offered me a position as a third shift security guard,
Speaker: I pretty much jumped at the chance. The pay is awesome. Well... As awesome as it's going to get for a guy with my kind of past. So, I'm sat in the security office one night,
Speaker: Try not to pass out from boredom, having given up on trying to read this gigantic Stephen King book I got for my 30th birthday. I keep telling myself to read more, but it's tough.
Speaker: I didn't exactly do good in school so I feel like I missed out on so many cool stories. Yeah, I've seen the shining and all of that, but... I get sick of people telling me how much better the book is.
Speaker: It makes me feel dumb for not having read it. Anyway, I'm dying of boredom, so I decide to go on a little foot patrol. Maybe grab a smoke at one of the emergency exits or something.
Speaker: The boss man checks the CCTV occasionally just to make sure we're not sleeping on the job, which some guys actually get fired for doing. So I get up and wandered around the store and clear a view of the cameras before ducking out an exit to light up.
Speaker: Now... Walmart parking lots can get pretty crazy. I have seen full on fist fights between customers over stuff as small as a parking space. I've had to chase away couples getting a little too fresh in their cars.
Speaker: Although that can be hilarious sometimes. and it only gets weirder at night. meth heads drug dealers people who have met on craigslist selling each other weird stuff For some reason, they all choose to meet in Walmart parking lots.
Speaker: So as I'm lighting up A single parked sedan catches my attention. In the deserted lot, it stuck out like a sore thumb. This old battered Ford just sat there all by itself.
Speaker: Oh god, what now I'm thinking. just preparing myself for whatever bout of crazy was about to unfold. I watched the car for a minute or two, seeing the driver clearly in the front seat.
Speaker: Not like perfectly clearly. It's almost pitch black, obviously, but... You know when you can see like the outline of a person in the front seat? Yeah that. Only, he's not moving at all.
Speaker: He's just sat perfectly still in the middle of the parking lot. I started making little bets with myself and a game I like to call Drugs, nookie, or mental illness.
Speaker: Pretty much every encounter I ever have during a shift can be put into one of those categories. I did their high. Horny or just insane. Now my first thought here was Nookie.
Speaker: The guy's waiting for a lady of the night. Calling one of those dumb 1 -800 numbers or... just jerking it to something gross on his phone. Either the way, it's nothing I'll need to call the cops for so I just finish my smoke and head back inside.
Speaker: An hour or so later the same deal occurs. My eyes are closing and I'm finding it harder and harder to stay awake. So I make one of those terrible tasting instant coffees and head out for another smoke.
Speaker: Only... When I get to the emergency exit and step out into the night, That same car is there. Having not moved an inch, Obviously, I'm getting a little suspicious about it now but mainly because I had no idea what it was even doing there.
Speaker: I can spot a deal or some shady stuff in a meetup. going from like a mile away but they tend to be over and done with kind of fast. They don't hang around in the parking lot.
Speaker: sat still in their driver's seat. Then it hit me. the exterior cameras, They're all night vision capable with zoom lenses. All I had to do was head back to the office and mess with the settings and I'd pretty much have a sniper's look into the interior of the car.
Speaker: So with the Mission Impossible theme playing in my head, I rush back to the office and start spying on the sedan. Zooming in on the car, The scene lit up. by the light sensitive cameras,
Speaker: I could clearly see this guy's face. Along with a big vintage mustache, The dude has sunglasses on. sat in his car. In the middle of the night...
Speaker: with shades on. Hmm. This guy must have been high as a kite. So if it's anything drug related, I'm pretty obliged to get out of the car and wave them away.
Speaker: No one wants the cops called on them when they have a vehicle full of something illicit or whatever, so it's an easy enough task. I wander out to the car, taking it pretty slow.
Speaker: 9 times out of 10 as I'm approaching. The lights will turn on and the car just speeds out of the parking lot. Only this one just sits there. The guy not moving at all. I tap on the back window. only gently, and say something stern along the lines of,
Speaker: Hey. Time to leave, buddy. This ain't a motel. Still. No movement. I turn on my torch and... I see why. I didn't take in much detail.
Speaker: I didn't need to. There was blood. everywhere. Things that should have been inside this dude were festering on the car's floor. little trickles of blood appearing from under his shades where whoever had done this had apparently taken his eyes too.
Speaker: I ran about as far as I could before I vomited hot coffee onto the parking lot surface. I was still retching when I called 911 from the security office. It all seems like a blur now. looking back on it, but...
Speaker: What I saw in that car still appears before my eyes sometimes when I close them at night. It's burned into my memory and I don't think I'll ever get it out. Now, Nogales is a border town.
Speaker: and it doesn't take the cops long to work out that the body was some kind of cartel -related incident. God knows what this poor guy had done. But he must have messed up bad enough to warrant this sort of punishment.
Speaker: These days, I carry a 38 on the job. I've never been interested in firearms, but I feel like I should carry one now, especially when I go out into the parking lot of the Nogales Walmart.
Speaker: just in case I run into the guys who turned that old sedan into something that'll haunt me. for the rest of my life. My local Walmart is in Quincy. Just outside of Boston.
Speaker: It's a short drive away and up until about a week or so ago I would make a weekly trip to the huge superstore to pick up groceries and cheap stationery items for school. So after driving over, I park my car and start making my way towards the main entrance when... I started hearing some jerk cat calling me from across the lot.
Speaker: I'm not the most beautiful girl in the world. Not by any stretch, but I still get whistled and hollered at by half -drunk nobodies. I just kept walking. totally ignoring their shouts and whistles as I approached the Walmart.
Speaker: That's when I heard his footsteps. The guy who had been shouting at me had jogged over to the parking lot. I know that's hardly the most terrifying thing you've ever heard, but... It really did have me on the verge of panic.
Speaker: What did he want? Why had he run all the way across the parking lot? If it was just to try and mack on me, then this guy was way more pathetic than I'd first thought. but I don't deal well with conflict so I was dreading having to tell him to back off or whatever.
Speaker: He then starts calling me by this other girl's name. My name is not Ali, but... Somehow he's calling me that name and kind of talking to me like he knows me. I told him that's not my name.
Speaker: But he just laughed like I was joking or something. This is when I got super confused. I honestly couldn't tell if he was serious or if this was some kind of prank or dare that his friends had put him up to.
Speaker: When I finally told him to go away, he murmured something about, seeing me around. After a few days, I realized I forgot to pick up a USB stick that I needed for college.
Speaker: I am literally raging with myself because I figured that the only reason I'd forgotten the first place was because of that weird creep in the parking lot. They seem harmless, sure, but... I have to admit to being pretty rattled from the encounter.
Speaker: So I rolled into the parking lot again. Park my car. Look around this time to make sure the same gang of dudes isn't hanging around. but like something out of a bad movie.
Speaker: There they are. hanging in the same spot. Only this time, as I'm looking over, I happen to make eye contact with the same dew that was bothering me. I know.
Speaker: I messed up. As you can guess he comes running over in the same way he did the previous time. Only this time he's distinctively more aggressive. He starts calling me Allie again.
Speaker: But... he's now accusing me of owing someone money. Like a lot of money by the sounds of it. I tell him to go screw but he just gets wicked mad at this point and starts cussing me out in front of everyone watching.
Speaker: I shouted back a little, but like I said, I don't do well with conflict. I felt myself tearing up as he roared all kinds of stuff at me. about how he'll get the money out of me if it's the last thing he does.
Speaker: He only left me alone when, in a shaking voice, I told him I was about to call the cops. I didn't go to the Walmart for a little while. I was really freaked out by what was going on so I thought it was best just to avoid the place and let this whole mistaken identity stuff die down.
Speaker: Maybe it was just a big prank. But the guy got so mad last time it... really didn't seem like he was playing around. So when I'm pretty sure all is blown over, I finally decided to pluck up the courage to hit the Walmart again.
Speaker: If the guy is there and he gets weird... I'll just call the cops. Easy. No getting upset in front of a crowd of strangers again. I drive through the parking lot slowly this time, just making sure that the guy and his friends aren't hanging around again.
Speaker: Nothing. No big group of creeps with bottle and brown paper bags. I was safe. It felt so liberating to not have to look over my shoulder. I practically skipped into the store to grab more graph paper, treating myself to some cheap candy since I was in such a good mood.
Speaker: Still smiling, I exit the store. relieved that the whole ordeal seems to be over. I was wrong. Somehow. They had seen me driving into the lot.
Speaker: There were so many of them. Guys, girls. Some looking angry, some looking excited at the prospect of a public whooping. I've never known fear like it's in my life.
Speaker: All I wanted to do was run back into the Walmart and hide, but... I was frozen to the spot. Hey. Where's my money? One of the girls was livid with rage.
Speaker: bounding towards me with their hands balled into fists. She too kept calling me Allie. Ali, Ali, Ali. I hated that name so much I never wanted to hear it again.
Speaker: The angry girl screeched about how I was dumb to think I could get away with robbing them. How I was a thieving little rat that get what's coming to her. I tried to protest my innocence that - They'd gotten the wrong person, but...
Speaker: All my pleas were drowned out. Phones were out and filming. The crowd expected this screeching monster to start hitting me at any moment. I remember just closing my eyes and waiting for the blows to land.
Speaker: But they didn't. Instead, a pair of strong arms threw themselves around me pulling me away from the fray. A deep accented voice began barking at the thugs to keep away from me.
Speaker: how the cops had been called and were on their way, It was the Walmart security guard. This huge black guy. He'd seen the whole thing and jumped in before it was too late. He led me to the security office away from the screaming mob and waited with me until the cops came.
Speaker: I broke down almost immediately. A kind of ugly sobbing. I try to say thank you. to tell him how grateful I was. but the words wouldn't come out. I just hugged him and he shushed me as the cops dispersed the crowd.
Speaker: Two state police detectives ended up visiting me at home a week or so later. They explained that the thugs in the Walmart parking lot had mistaken me for some addict who was indeed named Allie.
Speaker: Allie was a lady of the night and part of a drug dealing gang that had disappeared a few months prior when the detective showed me a photo of her. I understood why they'd mistaken me for her.
Speaker: She was like my twin. Same brown eyes. Same curly brown hair. The way she smiled even reminded me of myself. It was spooky. Seeing almost my doppelganger right to there in the photo.
Speaker: They explained that she had robbed her coke -dealing boss and absconded with a large chunk of cash. but that she's overdosed on fentanyl not long after she escaped, and that's why the gang were convinced it was me.
Speaker: They'd not seen or heard anything of Allie when they found me. and I guess they just saw red. I think about this alley girl sometimes and... wonder how it came to be that the trouble she caused would come to outlive her.
Speaker: and end up hanging over my head. instead.
Speaker: My mom worked at Walmart. and she was being harassed by an employee. Guy was your... Typical idiot who... offered my mom the quote -unquote Whoop my brother and I and kick us out.
Speaker: We learned she was widowed and my brothers and I were struggling to find work. This probably would have already been a bad gamble on his end since my older and brother and I worked in the woods frequently and did lots of heavy moving for people.
Speaker: He would often make comments that creep my mom out. I told her to report him to her boss, to labor and industries, and to the police. One night my mom let me borrow her truck and I dropped her off and went to pick her up later.
Speaker: We were going to do a range day with my friends and teach a friend of mine's fiancé gun safety and how to shoot. I'm also a licensed concealed carrier. I rarely carry other than hunting or going to the range.
Speaker: I pull up to pick my mom up and I see the dude she was talking about. He was smoking and looked at us as he stood. My mom then handed me money and told me to grab a few things.
Speaker: I threw my jacket on to cover up my holster and walked in. I noticed he immediately followed me around. glaring at me and snarling. like as if he was about to fight.
Speaker: and every section of the store he was there. So I just decided to move through a few others. I talked to a young female associate. Just some nonsense with her to catch his reaction.
Speaker: He was clenching something and staring. The associate felt uncomfortable as she kept looking at him. I moved and he followed until I cut off to the checkout. I got my things and left and as soon as I got back my mom unlocked the door.
Speaker: Meanwhile I was burning up as my jacket of choice was my heavy car heart so I was unzipping it and my mom looked worried as I heard footsteps coming. I turned to see him aggressively walking at me.
Speaker: But then he sees the holster and he stops. Excuse me. Can I help you with something? I inquire. Kind of forgetting I got my holster on still.
Speaker: He zips over to this rusty truck and gets in and waits. My mom is very scared. I see a cigarette light up and he's still just sitting there waiting. My mom immediately tells me.
Speaker: Go to the passenger side. I sit down and pull my phone out and I'm ready to call the police. My mom starts driving. He immediately cuts us off and drives off down the road.
Speaker: We see his truck sitting on the side of the highway as we drove by. like he was just waiting there. My mom immediately floored it and Had me pump gas for her when we got to the station.
Speaker: I left my gun in there for her as she locked the doors. Unbeknownst to my mom, I called the night manager and told her about the aggressive threatening employee. He was shocked and... I made it clear that if I see that employee again,
Speaker: or if I'm followed or harassed. I'm suing the store. and its management for allowing dangerous behavior in their store by employees. And apparently this was the final straw since Walmart managers let employee on employee harassment slide.
Speaker: But if it's employee or customer harassment, The employee is immediately dropped. I got back in the pickup and my mom drove until we got home. The next morning I filed a follow -up complaint on this guy to the staff and they said,
Speaker: He's fired and banned from the property. and threaten legal charges. My mom came back and seemed even happier. She informed me that the creep had been fired.
Speaker: Apparently this had been an ongoing thing for him. I don't even have the full context to... the degree in which he had been harassing other employees. but the fact that he tried to follow my mother and me on the highway.
Speaker: and only stopped whenever he saw that I had a firearm. It just truly makes you wonder. What did he have planned?
