Saturday, January 13, 2007
Job #5: Movie Theater
I worked in the box office one Christmas Eve. The manager told me to only enter every other ticket into the computer system, and to keep a written tally of the others. It was then that I realized he was skimming money from the till.
Working the concession stand that night was a little guy of indeterminate age. No one could figure out whether he was willfully child-like or slightly mentally challenged. He had recently rented a room in his apartment out to a stranger who promptly ran up immense long distance charges on his phone and then disappeared.
The little concession guy rolled one of those powerless carpet sweepers back and forth across the lobby, picking up spilled popcorn, smiling and saying, "It's a good thing Santa is coming tonight. I really need him to bring me some money. If it weren't for Santa I don't know what I'd do."
I couldn't tell if he really believed this or not, and didn't know how to ask. Each time I tried to broach the subject with him, I'd stop short of asking him what he was really going to do.
When it was time to bring the manager the money he was clearly stealing, I separated out the price of one movie admission, maybe four dollars at that time. I wish I could say I gave those four dollars to the little concession stand guy, but I didn't. I stuck it in my pocket and went home to celebrate Christmas with my family.
