I worked in Gamestop through two black fridays and two Christmases. I was a Game Advisor, the lowest rung on the ladder. There had recently been a robbery at one of the stores in the district, and they were installing cameras in our store when it happened.

It was about an hour before opening. I was there to help clean up from the camera installation and get a longer shift that day. My manager was there, and this was just before the release of the first UFC game. A guy, dressed in what can only be described as red footie pajamas for adults, walks up to the door just as the security installer is finishing up. He leans against the door and starts trying to look inside at us. There’s about $500 sitting on the floor, out of sight of him, but it makes the manager very nervous.

He turns to me and says “Go tell that guy we aren’t open and to come back in an hour, but I don’t want you to open the door to say it.”

I walk over to the door and shout “We’re not open until eleven!” The guy is in his mid thirties, receding hairline, drool in the corner of his mouth, with eyes that don’t lock onto anything. No response whatsoever. He continues to drool in front of the door.

My manager says “Go around the back of the store, outside, and tell him. I don’t think he heard you.”

So I go through the uber-secured back door (this thing was pretty cool, for a door) and head outside. It was at this point that I realized how good the air seal on the front door was because this guy smelled like a burning sewer rat. I was a good 10 yards away from him, and I could smell him clearly.

I cleared my throat. No response. I cough a little louder, trying to get his attention. Nothing.

I say “Sir?”

Direct eye contact. He spins around and looks square at me, then starts groaning and grunting and making really, truly fucked up noises. He starts to *run* towards me. I panicked and sprinted for the back door. When I get there, the manager has closed it. I’m stuck outside with a man who smells like the breeze off a landfill, and my manager has locked me out here.

There’s not even a doorknob on this side of the door. The man comes bolting for me around the corner. I pound on the back door and run.

He chased me around the whole building four times. Finally, my manager opens the front door for me, and we both are surprised when the man continues to run past the entrance, all the way around the building.

He’s dead silent, not breathing weird or making noises or anything. Just running in red footie pajamas around and around a mostly empty strip mall.

We both stand there in silence for a few minutes.

“Why did you close the back door?”

“I didn’t want him to get inside and rob us.”

“Aren’t you going to let him in once we’re open?”

“Yes, but not until then.”

“I’d like to tender my resignation.”

And that’s why I don’t work at Gamestop anymore.