1) I would take the night shift in the months of January and February. The park was closed for "non op" those two months. There was an "academy" in the month of February for new hires. Even though I was a Training Supervisor, there were two designated instructors with a curriculum, so, I didn't interact with trainees until the park opened the first week of March.
The night shift was run by a supervisor named Kelvin, he was very laid back. The way night shift is run, each person has three designated sections of the park. Every door, every window, every alarm and every camera is checked. As you complete a section, you call dispatch on the phone and relay your findings. On your second pass through you do spot checks.
On this particular night, one of my sections was the ampitheater and the trailers where the entertainers changed costumes and prepped for the shows. To speed along my spot checks, I had checked a bike out of the maintenance area. They had these really great, comfortable bikes from the mid 1960's (they made bikes differently 60 years ago). Anyway, I had parked the bike in the middle of the square U shaped group of trailers. As I checked the first trailer, I not only found the trailer unlocked (WTF?) I heard two loud bangs. I dove through the door, closing it behind me as I drew my gun and yelled "SHOTS FIRED!! SHOTS FIRED!! AMPITHEATER TRAILERS!!" over the radio. Real quick I did a room by room check of the trailer to try to assess just how deep in kim chi I actually was. Trailer was clear, okay, good.
I looked out one of the windows, trying to figure out why someone was shooting at me. Eventually, I noticed that the bike was ay an odd angle. I carefully left the trailer and made my way to the bike. I noticed that the tires had a bad case of dry rot and riding the bike had heated the air in the tires. I then called dispatch and told them I would explain in a bit.
I then walked the bike back to the maintenance warehouse and then went to dispatch. Upon entering the booth I saw shotgun shells all over the floor and noticed that Kelvin's hands were shaking intensely (I found out later that he had complex PTSD due to observing a gruesome accident the very first day that the park opened). I explained what had happened with the bike and we all had a good laugh.
2) One of the advantages of working for Kelvin was being able to leave the park to get a meal. At first, I went to a (now defunct) place called "Two Pesos" because they had an excellent taco meal. After Two Pesos closed, I went to Whataburger. I walked in and found no less than one hundred young people with melanin in the dining area. I didn't share their skin color. Behind the counter, not only was there a very full and busy kitchen staff, but also a cop so HUGE, so muscular, he could easily play defensive line in the NFL. The cop barked at me "What do you want?!"
"A Whataburger combo."
A girl was heading for the drive thru window with an order. He asked what she had and when she answered "combo" he took the order from her, gave it to me and said "Get the fuck out!!" I didn't pay, didn't have the chance and I realized that he was trying to reduce risk in the restaurant.
3) When I was asked to be a Training Supervisor, I didn't realize that there was an ulterior motive in mind. I took the promotion on November 1st and on that day, I had a meeting with the Director of Security and Assistant Director. For the month of December, for the first time, ALL of the Shift Supervisors and Assistant Supervisors were going to take the month off. It was explained to me that I would work the 4 PM to 6 AM shift with Travis taking the day shift. I would be in charge of scheduling and payroll, as well as being in charge of Holiday in the Park, which ran from the second weekend (December 8th) of the month until December 30th. I was ambitious, so I agreed.
Everything went smooth until December 20th. I got a call from dispatch to see the games supervisor (actually, there were two that night). They met me as I entered the games area. They explained that a suspect had broken in to the games office and that they caught him going through the safe (which he had broken open). They also pointed him out, he was standing with a group watching a juggler and he was holding two distinctive money pouches. Another officer had responded. I had him take the money pouches and I cuffed the suspect. I told the two games supervisors to fill out witness statements, gave them the money pouches and we perp walked the suspect to the booking room.
We were about halfway through booking (a paddy wagon was enroute) when Willy walked in the room, accompanied by a shift supervisor named Melby. Melby asked what was going on and I filled him in. Melby then took the cuffs off of the man, handed them to me and apologized to the man for the rough treatment he got that night. Melby then gave the man ten tickets to the park, apologized again and let him go. I asked Melby why he did that. "You don't have any evidence" he said. "The hell I don't" I fired back, "there's a camera in the games office and I have two supervisors filling out witness statements." Melby sneered at me and walked out of the room.
I saw Melby again in January. He was in street clothes, standing on the front porch of the admin building. I was aware that he had worked his last shift that day. I asked, "hey Melby, why did you back stab me last month?"
"It wasn't personal" he said, "I hate this place and everything it stands for. I was fucking the park."