Pool: Be ready with your response
Several things are on my mind this week, from the Veterans Day Parade coming up Saturday, Nov. 5, keeping pets safe on Halloween, and a horrible incident while shopping Sunday.
Don’t forget American Legion Post 53 Veterans Parade at 11 a.m. in downtown Roanoke the first Saturday in November.
The group is trying to get all the veterans in the area to participate in being recognized for their service. Veterans who want to participate should get in touch with Alan Workman or Wayne Ward or just show up.
This weekend the book sale in the old warehouse in Roanoke continues to try help raise funds to care for the animals in the warehouse in Wedowee.
The books are good and they are inexpensive. Often they are best sellers. Ask the volunteers where your favorite author is and they can direct you to the right location.
It is fitting to hold it now. October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month. Halloween is also coming up and we all need to be extremely careful with candy and treats around our animals. For example, candy wrappers can be extremely dangerous to curious animals. Foil and cellophane can cause life-threatening bowel obstructions which may require surgery.
Also, highly toxic to dogs are raisins, which can cause kidney failure. Chocolate is highly poisonous to dogs. Dogs are quick to gobble up candy dropped on the floor while you hand out treats.
Glow sticks can cause problems. Glue, glitter or shellac on pumpkins can be toxic. Make sure a Halloween costume for your dog fits well, neither too tight nor too loose, and let him try it on before the holiday to allow him to get used to it.
Sunday, after a good morning at First Baptist Church I was running some errands. The last one was at my favorite grocery store. I was choosing which line to get into when it appeared to me a couple was not ready to get in line. She had a phone in hand and I thought (silly me) they were deciding whether anything else was needed. I may as well stepped in a ditch filled with manure.
Once they started screeching and carrying on, I tried to apologize. Oh no, none of that. I had violated their sense of justice, of rightness in the world.
Of course I backed up. Never in my life have I broken line knowingly. I usually ask if someone is in line but they were standing back from the cashier so I (figuratively) stepped in it.
The man proceeded to holler at me, ordering me into the other line, gesturing wildly with his hand and arm. She continued yacking at me that obviously I meant to get in front of them.
I first said I would stand in whatever line I wanted to instead of moving as he ordered me to do. What business was it of his if I was standing behind him. He wasn’t the store owner, who was he to tell me to move?
But figuring they were flat out crazy I moved over to the next line. They kept ranting, then he said he was going to knock me in the head.
I said, “I beg your pardon, what did you say?” He said he was going to come over there and knock me in the head.
I told him he must not be from Roanoke because that kind of language and behavior is not tolerated here.
Did a cashier speak up and say that kind of behavior is not permitted here? No, so I wanted you to know if anybody threatens to knock you in the head while you are shopping you need to be ready to pull out your phone and call 911.
I was so stunned I took no action. The manager was in the back of the store. I had seen him earlier. Did the cashiers call him or send a bag boy to say you might want to come up front? No.
I talked to Police Chief Adam Melton and he said that was clear harassment. It is true it is a misdemeanor, but if these people did that with me, they are likely out of control at other places.
While harassment, a misdemeanor, can fit under several sections of 13A-11-8 the one that fit my situation was as follows: “For purposes of this section, harassment shall include a threat, verbal or nonverbal, made with the intent to carry out the threat, that would cause a reasonable person who is the target of the threat to fear for his or her safety.”
The chief said I should have called the police, as has every other person I have told about this. He said not to confront the person but to get his description, vehicle and tag number if possible.
I put my groceries in the car and came back in to find the manager as the person who harassed me laughed with the cashier.
The manager, now up front, seemed surprised and said I should have called the police. He advised me to go in the parking lot and get the tag number if they had gone into another store, which it appeared they had.
However, I had ice cream that might melt and went on home. Still stunned and upset I called my sister, who immediately said I should have called the police.
She advised me to call the store and see if the people had paid with a check, debit card or food stamps in order to obtain their identity.
The manager said if he could find out who it was he would call back. He hasn’t, so I assume he didn’t find anything so I could swear out a warrant.
The way the cashier was laughing I thought she might have known them. Guess not.
It sort of makes you feel unsafe when none of the people standing there said anything. So be on your guard–it’s up to you if you run into something like this.
I can’t help but feel that the couple felt safe directing their contemptuous behavior and hatefulness at an older woman. They might not have gotten the response they deserved in this instance but I have no doubt with the logs they carry around on their shoulders payment will come due.
All my life nothing like this has occurred to me but I guarantee you if it happens again I will be ready with a response. I will be ready. And you should think about what you would do.
A couple of people have said this is why they carry a gun everywhere with them. Seems a bit extreme, but being told you are going to get hit in the head in the grocery store is a little extreme too.
