Memoirs of a Walgreens Photo Specialist

Names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved.

I had been working for Walgreens for a little over a year before my view of the world was shattered. While I have had to deal with shoplifters, I had never even seen a gun before this. Not in real life. That is unless you count those of police officers and security guards. There is also the pump action BB gun my father had. That gun couldn’t do any real harm. I’m sure it would hurt if you got shot by it, but it wouldn’t draw blood. My cousin had one. He once “accidently” shot his brother in the butt with it. I remember him pulling his pants down, outside, on the front porch. His friends were gathered around him, looking at his naked butt to make sure he wasn’t bleeding. He wasn’t. We all had a good laugh.

This was different. Nobody was laughing. Everything started off fine that day. The only problem was Ms. Cosner, the manager working that night. A few of my fellow employees would disagree but I must say that she was a real jerk. That’s putting it nicely. I was not working in the photo department that night. Instead, she had me work at the front register. Eddie was going to do both stock and photo. He was able to move back and forth between the two much quicker than I could, so I wasn’t that upset. Although I did hate working in the front. Jenny was working in cosmetics and Julie was working at the pharmacy. There was also Gary, the security guard. With the exception of Ms. Cosner, we had a pretty nice crew that night.

Ms. Cosner was not too keen on helping out. For example, there would be different codes we would use to let the managers know what was going on. A code 10 (not real codes) would be to alert managers and workers that a known shoplifter was in the store, or that a customer was spotted shoplifting. A code 20 would let the manager know that I was running out of money at the register. At that point, they would contact me, ask me what I need, and bring it to me. Code 30, on the other hand, was called if I had too much money. It was not my decision when to call. The message would appear on my screen. It would say “C30”. I more recent years it would say “Call Manager.” But “Code 30” would still be called in most stores.

If “Code 30” was called the manager was supposed to respond as soon as possible if not right away. She would collect all but $200 and drop the money into the safe. The two of us would count the money together and verify the amount. We would both put our passwords into the computer with the amount collected. The first time I called, she didn’t respond at all. I know she heard me, but she had that whole I’m The Boss, attitude and I knew she wouldn’t respond immediately.

The night continued. I called “Code 10” a few times. Eddie would come and escort them out. There were a few kids trying to steal stuff in the store. We were able to call their parents. It was fun to watch the child’s mother come in with the police and have him arrested. I called “Code 30” again.

One child we didn’t catch, but his mother dragged him back into the store, lifted him up. “Everybody!” she said. “Take a good look at this face. He’s a thief. Don’t let him back in the store.” That was another good laugh. Some of the other customers thought that it was cruel for her to do that to her own son. They said that she deliberately embarrassed him. I said, “I bet he’ll never do it again. Code 30!”

I called “Code 30” several more times. She never came. Eventually she called me. Remember, this is an ASAP code. However, she said, “DO NOT call me again. I’ll get it when I feel like it. I’m busy.” The thing is that the purpose of it was so that if anyone tries to rob the store, they will only get away with a few hundred dollars instead of a few thousand. If I didn’t make the call and the store was robbed, I’ll be fired. Even if I was hurt in the process. But if I did call and the manager just didn’t respond, it’s on her. So, I said “fine. I won’t.” By-the-way, she was “busy” talking to her boyfriend on the phone.

When I didn’t have any customers in my line, I counted money in my register. Normally, they would collect the money when it reaches $600. My register had already exceeded $3000. If she didn’t want me to call “Code 30” anymore, I was making sure I took note if it. I wrote down the approximate times I did call as well as when she told me to stop calling. I planned to write down the time she collected the money and amount to share with the store manager, but she never collected it.

The day went pass without too many issues. 9:30 PM, I made the announcement that the store was closing in 30 minutes. At this point, three guys walked into the store. One of them I recognized. His name was Bob, and he went to high school with me. “Bob!” I called. But he took off running to the back of the store. I thought that was weird but didn’t let it bother me. One of the 3 men got in line and started talking to me. With no other customers in line, I had no problem talking. He was quite friendly. As the line built, he got out of line and continued shopping.

“Attention Walgreens shoppers, our store will be closing in 15 minutes. Please take this time to make your final selections and bring all items to the front of the store for check out. Walgreens will re-open tomorrow morning at 7:00 for your shopping convenience. Once again, we will be closing in 15 minutes. Thank you for shopping at Walgreens and have a good night.”

As more customers exited the store, the same guy came speaking to me again. We continued the conversation where we left off. We were even able to laugh a little bit. I did not see Bob anymore, but the 3rd guy was standing next to the security guard carrying on a conversation with him. I tried to keep an eye on all who came into the store that late at night. I wanted to know how many, if any, were still walking around when we closed.

“Attention Walgreens customers, our store will be closing in 5 minutes. Please bring all items to the front for check out.”

The store was designed where one door enters the other exits. At this point, the security guard locked the entry door. This way, no more customers could enter, and we could close down on time. Any new customers could request to be let in by the guard who would then step in front of the exit door to open it.

“Attention Walgreens customer, our store is now closed.”

There were only five customers in the store. Three of them got in line including the guy that was talking to me for the last half hour. I watched two of them leave. As soon as they did, the security guard threw his hands in the air. It seemed strange to me, but it didn’t bug me too much. As I turned back to the front, the “friendly” guy that’s been talking to me pulled a gun at me. My first thought was not fear. I assumed that this was some kind of joke. “Get that thing out my face”, I said as I smacked the gun out his hand. In every fiber of my very being, I believed the gun was fake. My actions were not an act of bravery or even stupidity. It was simply to let this guy know that this “joke” was not funny. As soon as my hand hit this metal, not plastic, gun, I knew that this was real.

The guy reached out to me, and I jumped back with my hands in the air. “It’s yours”, I said. (In hindsight, I should have grabbed the gun. But I think I was to shocked that this was real.)

“Get away from the register.”

As I walked away from the register, I noticed Eddie had his hands in the air alone Julie. Bob had grabbed both of them. At the time, Jenny was cleaning the restrooms and Ms. Cosner was in the office. As far as I knew, they didn’t see them. The three gunmen lead us, that is Eddie, Julie, Gary, and me, to the stock room. They told us to lay down with our faces to the floor. We had previously complained about the condition of the stock room. The floor was nasty and sticky. It stank. To lie down on this filth was an added injury. It would have been cleaned, but the managers weren’t putting anyone on the schedule to do it.

After a short while, we could hear the door open. Then we heard Jenny screaming hysterically. To hear her tell the story, just like me, she thought that the whole thing was some big joke. She said that as soon as she walked out from the back of the store, they rushed at her and grabbed her. She smiled as she walked with them waiting for the surprise. The surprise was to see the rest of the team laying face down on the nasty floor. That’s when the realism set in, and she lost control.

“Where is the tape?” one of them asked.

I thought they were talking about the security tape. These men did not wear mask. Their faces were clearly seen. There was no reason to believe we would survive that night. I was not about to give this up. Whether I lived or not, they were going to be caught.

“I don’t know”, I said when they asked a second time.

“Aisle 7”, Eddie said.

At this point, I realized that they were talking about the sticky kind of tape. They quickly ran a got it and duck tapped Jenny’s mouth.

I’m a God-fearing man. I know that God won’t always pull people out of a bad situation. But I do believe that He gives people the ability to cope with a stressful situation. I gave a quick prayer, and I could feel the words of Philippians 4:7 coming true. “The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your mental powers.” A peace came over me so that I was not overly fearful or even stressed. I was really calm now. At the time, I was more worried about Jenny, and Ms. Cosner. She was not there with us. Here you had this small skinny woman with a superiority complex and a snappy mouth. I had no idea what they were doing to her. Or if she was still alive. She may have said the wrong thing and who knew what they may have done.

After they tapped Jenny’s mouth, they started to tape up the rest of us. They wanted to bind our hands and feet with duct tape. The moment they grabbed me, I heard the cry of one of the 3 men. “Hay! The police are here. The police are here. Someone must have pressed the button. I bet it was that guy with the glasses.”

I was the only one with glasses in the store, so I knew that they were about to come after me. The truth was that we didn’t have one of those buttons. But how would I convince any of them of that. Moments later, I felt someone grab my feet. I was still feeling calm but if I was going down, I was not going to go down without a fight. I started kicking and swinging. But it turned out to be Officer Waters, who was a friend of my father’s.

“David. You’re OK.”

It turned out that as those last two legit customers were packing their car, they looked back and saw the one guy pull the gun on the security guard. They called the police. When the Security Guard locked the entrance door, he never turned off the automatic exit door. When the police arrived, one of the three told her to tell the police that all was OK. When she walked up to the door, it opened, and the police walked in. All three were caught as well as the man in the “get-away” car.

The ordeal was not over. Now we all had to go down to the police station to make a statement. This proved to be more stressful than the blotched robbery. All we had to do was go and tell what happened and see if we could identify the three men. As a side point, before leaving the store, the mayor walked in, asked if we were all ok (It was getting close to election time.) As soon as we all said that we were, he left. He then had it written in the local News Paper that he personally broke up the robbery.

As we got to the station, we were led to an interrogation room and told to wait. This was about 11pm. At midnight we were still waiting. Now we are all so tired that we can’t think straight. I always talked to my mother when I got home from work. So, now I had to call her and let her know what was happening. I let her know that I was at the police station unharmed. But she was still stressed with this information.

At 12 midnight, we were still waiting. I did not want to go to sleep. I wanted to be there to give my statement. I wanted to tell them about Bob. While we were not friends in high school, we weren’t enemies. I felt betrayed.

We were able to talk about what happened with each other. All but Ms. Cosner, she didn’t want to talk. Jenny was cleaning the bathrooms and break room. She was unaware of anything going on. She knew that the store was closed. When she saw someone walking around, she assumed that we were playing some kind of joke on her. Eddie had a similar experience to what I had. Julie was grabbed as she walked away from the pharmacy. Gary said that in the end, the guy asked if he carried a gun. That wasn’t an odd question seeing that he was a security guard. Most do. He explained that armed guards were paid more thus the store was not willing to pay the extra money. At that point, the guy said, “That’s so good to hear.” Then he pulled his gun on Gary. That must have been at point that I looked toward the door. I noticed his hands in the air but didn’t pay attention to why.

It was some time after 1AM that they finally came in to take our statement. The first thing they asked was if I thought Ms. Cosner had anything to do with it. Of course not. She may have been a jerk, but I didn’t think she was an idiot. Next, they showed me a bunch of photos the see if I could identify the three men. Bob and the one talking to me, were IDed right away. I pointed to a picture of a man with a swollen, bloody face and missing teeth. “That’s him”, I said, talking about the 3rd guy. “But what happened to him?” Officer Waters stood up straight and said without any smile what-so-ever, “He fell.”

He Fell! Into what? On-coming traffic. They had pictures of this man’s teeth lying on the ground. He tried to push past the police when they came into the store, and they hit him in the mouth and beat him in the face with their stick. Should I have felt sorry for one of the men involved in holding me up at gun point. I felt that he got what he deserved.

After about 2AM, they had them do a line up to see if we could identify them. Of course, we all could. Then they told us that they would be calling us back to get more information.

I was supposed to work that next morning. But after being held up at gun point and being at the police station until 3AM, there was no way I could be at work at 9AM. At called the job shortly after 7AM. I asked to speak to the store manager, Mr. Green.

“Hello, Mr. Green, this is David. I’m not going to be able to come in today.”

“Why not”, he said with a very rude tone in his voice. I was taken back a bit. I really didn’t know how to answer. I was really getting upset.

“I’m sick”, I eventually responded. I guess that my tone of voice brought him to his senses. His whole mannerism changed to concern.

“OK!”, he said. “How are you doing. Is everything OK!”

I let him know that we had not to long got back home from the police station. He apologized.

Later that day I got a call from the police station. They would pick me up for more questions and statements. When I got there, I saw a very disturbing sight. Ms. Cosner in handcuffs looking like she had just spent the night in jail.

“Eddie, what’s going on?”, I asked.

“You didn’t hear. She set the whole thing up.”

“What! How did they figure that out.”

“That was her boyfriend in the get-away car. The gunmen were her cousins. She was overheard talking to her boyfriend about robbing a store on the store phone. On top of all that, the cameras were not recording.”

Most of this could be considered circumstantial evidence. But the cameras not recording is a big thing. This was a time when the cameras actually recorded on a video tape. Somebody had to physically go, and press “Stop”. No failed WIFI would do it. Only the manager had the key to get into the room where the tape was. Add to that the fact that she allowed thousands of dollars to build up in my register and possibly the other registers also.

“That jerk”, I said, “I was so worried about her and set it all up.”

She was guilty in my eyes. Although the courts didn’t think so. She had a good lawyer. They read my statement, made before hearing the evidence, that I couldn’t see her being involved. Regardless of that, Walgreens fired her on the spot. Her boyfriend and others were charged with several different felonies. Kidnapping was one of them since they had us laying on the floor behind closed doors. They each spent about 15 years in prison. I never saw any of them again.

I continued to work for Walgreens for another 21 years. I’ve been held up two more times but none like the first. I’ve seen co-workers held up. One man even tried to set the store on fire as a distraction. I’ve seen more things happen there that a new TV show could be made. Walgreens Dumbest Criminals. Next let me tell you about some of the dumbest employees.