Tuesday, April 05, 2011

What Would You Do?

Have you ever seen the show "What would you do?" by ABC News? They have hidden cameras, and have actors present a situation for the unknowing public. Then they watch to see how people will react. For example, if you heard someone yelling racial slurs at a waitress, would you step up and tell them it's wrong? If you saw someone stealing something in a store, would you tell the store manager? Many of the programs have shown people who did choose to get involved. I feel like I am the kind of person who gets involved, especially if an injustice occurs. Today I had such a situation.

I was just about to open my car door at Walmart when I saw an old man irately get out of his car and start marching over to another car that had just parked. He started yelling at the people in the car! He had such anger in his voice, he sounded like he wanted to fight them! I couldn't just get in my car and drive away, knowing that he was trying to pick a fight. I decided to hang around and hopefully I could get help if something started. I stood next to my car, trying to keep an eye on the situation.

Just then, the driver of the other car got out of the car and came toward the old man. They started really yelling at each other and I was really afraid they were going to start swinging at each other. I decided to walk toward the front of the store where I could see a male employee picking up shopping carts. He looked like he was keeping an eye on them, but I felt he needed help. So I went inside and asked for a manager. They made a call, and I waited, but I didn't see a manager come. I was getting concerned that the fight might already be over! I walked back to the front of the store and as I got to the door, I saw the younger man and his wife coming in the store. I looked out and saw the old man leaning on their car, apparently waiting for them to come back out. The door greeter told me they had started to fight, but I'm not sure if they really did because I don't think it would end that fast.

Just then I saw a guy standing just inside the door who was dressed like a sort of hoodlum. I used to help store security when I worked in a department store as a youth, so I recognized immediately who he was. I said to the greeter, "Is that your security man?" She said it was, so I went up and told him what happened. Before I could leave, I made him promise me that he would take care of the situation. He said, "I'll turn the store cameras that direction." I said, "Don't let him go at them when they come out. He's too old to get in a fight!" He told me he would take care of things so I left. I'll be honest though, I really wanted to stay and make sure they didn't let him fight, but I had to pick up my kids. lol

I know enough not to get in the middle of a fight, but I can't just sit back and watch it happen without at least trying to do something to stop the situation! My kids think I'm weird....

4 comments:

Amber said...

I always wonder what I would do in situations like that I know I would want to help, but I also know that I'm chicken too, so it's a mix bag. I think you did the right thing though!

Max Coutinho said...

Hey D,

In my opinion, you did the right thing.

I don't know what I would've done because I have never been in such situations; however I have been involved in cases where someone throws a racial slur at someone else and then I had to step in and...well, let's say...get involved.

Cheers

Nene said...

I went to pull in a parking space when I saw that someone coming the other way was waiting to pull in also, so since there were 2 spaces, I took the one closer to me (but 1 space further from the store) and let him take the closer space to him. I was talking to my daughter, so I told her to let him get out first and we continued to talk. We were laughing about something we were talking about. I kept looking to see if they were getting out of the car, but they weren't so we got out. Then he got out and started YELLING at me! He said I was making fun of him! I told him I was having a private conversation with my daughter which was humorous and had nothing to do with him. He wouldn't believe me and kept YELLING and I mean really YELLING! Finally my daughter and I just walked off and went into the store. I was so upset that this guy had yelled at me that I couldn't even shop and finally we just left and went home. yikes

Rummuser said...

This is exactly what I meant when I said in response to our LBC posts that you do take risks. Bravo.