Razor Blade Smiles

It would seem that the store I work at is attracting a new breed of "customer " these days. I put customer in quotes because... well these ones don't actually buy anything. Let me start at the beginning, cos that's always been a sensible place to start anything from. A couple weeks back we grabbed a shoplifter in the store, a teenage girl. I don't remember what it was she was caught stealing, and that isn't really relevant to this matter anyway.

So we did what we always do with thieves, march them to the store managers office, secure them in there and phone the police to come and collect them. Only this girl as soon as she's locked in the room, starts threatening to slash her wrists if we don't let her go. And she started to try and do ust that. Lacking a blade of any kind, she tried opening her wrists with a ball point pen. So we called the police and told them what was going on and to haul ass. They still took their time getting there, but as far as I know the girl failed in her attempt.

Fast forward too tonight and I'm sat in the Admin office (pulling a close down shift), and the walkie talkie flares up to call our store manager to the front door. At the same time reception puts out a call for a First Aider to make their way to the store foyer. Turns out some girl outside had tripped and fallen on glass, and has come in with their hands and wrists all slashed up. Our security guard wasn't convinced though, and he kept an eye on the girl's friend who had come in with her and gone wandering about the store, when the injured girl had been taken to the ladies toilets.

And he caught her stealing a pack of razor blades... which she then calmly slit her wrists with! He watched her do this. And it turns out that the first girl had done the same thing, as there was no sign of any broken glass anywhere near the store entrance for her to have fallen on. An ambulance was summoned and the paramedics duly warned that the two girls were... well nuts for want of a better term. They were also of course, armed and possibly dangerous.

In talking to our security guard later on, I learned that the girl who he had watched slash her wrists had also tried to stab him a week or two ago, again in or near the store! I'd love to know why all of a sudden my store, is every suicidal girl's venue of choice. I've contemplated suicide plenty of times, made one serious attempt at it whilst in University too. Not something I'd entertain these days though. Suicide is the ultimate act of selfishness, of caring only about you and how you feel. And not stopping to think of how your death will devastate those around you.

I know it has that effect, because one of my best friends committed suicide just under 2 years ago, and I still feel his loss now. The only good that has come out of that experience, is that mine and Tony's friendship grew a lot stronger because of us both losing a friend together. I still miss him, I always will, but if I were to meet him now somehow, after what he did... I'd deck him! I know what can drive people to attempt suicide because I've been there and tried (and obviously failed), but why these girls of late have sought to do this so publically I don't understand at all.