From: mikekearn

I have worked retail or other customer service for about 10 years now, so I have lots of little stories. This one, however, might be one of the most ridiculous.

Right now I work at one of the large warehouse style retail stores, in the tire service and propane area. Directly across the street from us is another huge retail chain.

A couple days ago, a customer comes in to our service area, clearly tweaked out on something, demanding that we sell him a used tire for his car. Unfortunately for this guy, we only sell new tires, as we choose to always stand by manufacturers warranties and all that. Kinda hard to do with a used product.

Anyway, the guy gets even more agitated than before, and asks if we can fix his tire then, and my coworkers tells him we can take a look at it. He ends up having a several inch gash along the sidewall, which is totally non repairable. Given the location and the damage to the tire's rim, it's clear this guy went over a curb, and hard.

He starts asking about whatever our cheapest tire is, before giving up and just running out the door. Around that time, we had been hearing sirens in the background, but our store is on a major access road, so we thought nothing of it.

As it turns out, this guy and his buddy sitting in their car are both wanted for armed robbery and assault. The car they were desperate to fix was the getaway car they stole in the parking lot right across the street, and the idiots blew out a tire going over a curb in their desperation to get away.

Then instead of stealing another car, or even just putting on the spare, they tried to get us to fix it, giving the cops enough time to surround our store and arrest them. I got to see the both of them sitting on the curb, in handcuffs, as the police took statements from everyone.

--mikekearn