Area homelessness (3 of 3): Incident, redux.

Like last week at the (Thai) restaurant it's 11am on a Monday, and I'm opening the front door with the key and the push-handle on the front door pops out, and just as it does that, the (older) (black) homeless guy with sunglasses and a light grey coat walks by on the sidewalk outside and he hears that, and he swings towards the door and starts shouting, "Why are you locking the door on me? Are you locking the door on me?", and he seems very angry, and he starts grabbing at the door, and I try to fiddle with it and actually lock it again, but that doesn't happen, so I back off normally like I'm just doing stuff normally, and he yanks the door open and comes in the front of the restaurant and is shouting at me that he is a "United States veteran" and knows "Senator John Kerry from the United States Marine Corps," and that I shouldn't lock the door on him, and several times he takes paces towards me, and I back up and speak firmly and loudly like I had learned at a self defense training years ago, and I'm like, "Sir, I was opening the restaurant for the day," and I was like again, "Sir, I wasn't locking the door, I was opening the front door of the restaurant for the day," and although there was a ton of people in the back and they were busy with a large catering order, no-one was coming out, and I kept speaking firmly and keeping distance with my one hand stretched out at him to establish my space, and finally, he whipped around and left.

And, wouldn't you know it, just that day I was thinking of taking pepper spray to work and keeping it in my back pocket in case something like that should ever happen, but I hadn't, since I thought that would be paranoid of me.

My one (older) (Thai) coworker who's a whiz at phones did end up coming in and seeing the end of that, and she said that every once in a while a homeless person comes in, and like 4 years ago she called the police about it, and they said that they could come in and give a warning, but there's nothing really that they can do about it, and so she's never tried calling them again.

"I think I'm going to start taking pepper spray to work," I was like, and she just nodded.

And, I have.