From rude customers to con-artists to Furries to drug addicts, BHS students encounter numerous predicaments while on the job.

Some days on the job can be difficult, some can be weird, and some can be downright scary, but students have seen it all.

Junior Colby Perron works as a crewmember at a movie theater and had a rather uncommon conflict with a customer who wanted to see the movie Zootopia.

“So I’m sitting there, and I’m the only person at the box office because everybody else is on break and I’m selling tickets,” said Perron. “There’s a group of people called Furries who dress up like animals, and one of them comes in to see the movie, and he’s wearing a full wolf costume with the head in his arms.”

Perron’s job requires him to work with the public on a regular basis. Most of his patrons are average moviegoers, but there are those who are a little different than the usual customers.

“He goes to put it on and I tell him, ‘I’m sorry sir, you can’t do that because we have a policy that you can’t cover up your face for safety reasons,’” said Perron. “He [the customer] then says, ‘I’d prefer it if you don’t address me as ‘sir’ because when I’m in this costume I am a wolf, and I am going to ask to be addressed as such.’”

Since the movie Zootopia revolves around anthropomorphic animals, many members of the Furry fan base have decided to cosplay [costume play] while attending the movie.

“So I told him, ‘Well Mr. Wolf, I’m still going to have to ask you to leave your head in the car, and this is nothing against you as a person or animal. It just isn’t allowed,’” said Perron. “So he [Mr. Wolf] goes out into the car, and then comes storming back in and tells me, ‘Alright, so I want one ticket to Zootopia.’”

Perron never had to deal with a situation like this until-now.

“So I print out the ticket, but he can’t pick it up because of his paw. It was just the most interesting thing I’ve seen in a very long time,” Perron said.

Senior Autumn Brophy works in the fast food industry and fully understands the frustration of dealing with irritating patrons.

“We had a guy come in over the summer who was obviously a tourist, and he was basically trying to con us into giving him free food,” said Brophy. “He was asking for allergy information and we don’t carry it in a pamphlet anymore because it’s all online.”

Working in the fast food industry requires an employee to work at a swift pace to move the line of customers along. Rude customers easily hold up business.

“So we tell him, ‘Sir it’s online. You can go on your phone or any device that has internet and look up the entire list of our food allergies,” said Brophy. “ And he [the customer] started complaining, ‘Why don’t you have a pamphlet? I should get reimbursed for this! I just want to know whether or not I can eat this!’”

Some customers will even go as far as treating employees like they are stupid and demeaning them when they don’t get their way.

“So we told him, ‘Sir, we’ve told you where to find the information and we’re sorry but we can’t do anything more.’ And he [the tourist] was like, ‘I’m on vacation! Do you know what that is? Vacation? I don’t have a phone or a computer with me!’” said Brophy. I saw him with his phone two minutes later which proves he was trying to con us the entire time.”

Sophomore Kyra Wadley also works in fast food, but she claims she doesn’t have many issues with rude customers. Rather, she finds overly affectionate customers more bothersome. .

“Some guy wouldn’t leave my drive through without getting my number,” said Wadley. “I had to go get a coworker of mine to make him leave.”

Senior AnnaMarie Seiler, who has worked at a few different places, also suffers from unwanted affection from a variety of customers.

Seiler’s worked as a cashier at a fast food restaurant which had a relatively scary occurrence late one night while Seiler was working a closing shift.

“This one guy came in and bought some stuff then went to the restroom while I was cleaning up, so I didn’t really notice him,” said Seiler. “Then an hour past, and the place was completely dead, and another person walks in and heads straight to the restroom.”

Seiler considered his action to be rude since he didn’t buy anything, but she continued working without giving it too much thought.

“He knocked on the door then came to us and he’s like ‘The door is locked, I knocked and no one said anything can you come unlock it?’” said Seiler. “I got my manager come over and unlock the door and he opened it and the guy [first man who walked in] was doing heroin in the bathroom and he was passed out on the floor!”

Seiler laughed while talking about her experience, but she states that she was scared when it first happened

“Trust me, it’s not as funny as it sounds, it was scary man,” said Seiler. “Some guys just unconscious on the floor, and the guy that had to use the bathroom freaked out and used the girls bathroom instead.”

There will always be mishaps that happen while on the job that make working a little more interesting for students.